Have a merry season

Today, I made my last Christmas gift packs for 2013. It filled with me joy as that is another step in the right direction that we have made in our wee spice business. People have been really complimentary which never ceases to amaze us. See Zoe's write up on: Christmas Present Guide

Last night we got an email saying they needed to find Deema's spices to tide them through the festive period. I think on that absoultely brilliant note - we wish everyone a merry season as we close for 2013.

See you in 2014.

Delicious Deema's Spices Christmas Gift Bag

You'll be glad to know that our authentic delicious blend of Deema's Sri Lankan Curry Spices is now available as a special Christmas gift bag.

 

For just £8 each, our Christmas gift bags include 2 packets of Deema's Sri Lankan Curry Spices in a lovely re-useable jute bag and a special recipe card for making curry with turkey leftovers and the price includes postage but not the holly! And if you pre-order 2 gift bags, the price is £15. Order today!

For Christmas gifts sorted easily, we can send to a friend or relative. Just email us their name and address along with your details to deemaspice@gmail.com we will add a note in to say that it is from you.

In the meantime, have a merry season.

Flying by the seat of our pants.

Damn. We didn't find any funding.

It did put us down and there wasn't much enthusiasm. But hey we'll just use the trusted but limited VISA and fly by the seat of our pants.

So no more radio silence, doom and gloom and cursing banks - well, bank cursing will continue.

We are back.


And we have been busy. There is a new Christmas giftpack. Hopefully unveiled this weekend. So watch out Deema's back in town!

There’s healthy eating. And there’s deep fried curried chicken.

On Saturday afternoons, my husband used to get us yummy but expensive bags fried chicken from various chicken places on the way down Leith Walk.

However, he’s now come up with a new option that’s even tastier and a load cheaper. But this no health-food option either.  It’s just delicious, while being easy dish to manage for the average male member of the species while he juggles his usual hectic Saturday afternoon schedule of sport-watching, pint drinking and avoiding DIY commitments: 

Deema’s Spice Deep fried chicken, the ingredients:

Any fresh chicken will do

Deema’s Spice one packet

An extra hot chillie, or two

Mixed herbs

Rice-wine

Garlic

Salt and Pepper

Soy-sauce

Chicken oxo-cube

That’s right he grabbed everything we usually have to hand and just rubbed it into the chicken, then he left it for a few hours. When he came back, he plonked it into the fryer, and twenty minutes later, voila. We had a gorgeous and deliciously unhealthy treat for around £7.50, instead of twenty-odd quid.

For even tastier Deema's Spice - do nothing but wait.

Although we like to say our curries are quick to make, we've noticed one big reason why you shouldn't rush too much. If you let them stand, they taste even better. The mix of flavours blends even more perfectly over time. An overnight stay in the fridge, for example turned our potato and bean curry into a deeply scrumptious cold addition to our Sunday summer lunch and it became the highlight of the meal. 

Incidentally, this means if you have any leftovers from one of our curries, they won't be left for long 

For spice go international, but visit a local grocer for really outstanding veg

Lots of people have different views about supermarkets. At Deema's Sri Lankan Spices, we choose not to have or share any of them. If it all goes to plan, you see, we want to feature in their shelf space.

Yet it's a simple fact that even the most taste-conscious supermarket can't compete for tastiness with local fruit and vegetables that are allowed to ripen naturally, for longer - attached to a plant in the soil, rather than being kept fresh in any super/instant freezing/refrigeration process. Why do we know this? When we cook up samples with veg from Tattie Shaws, people comment on the veg, as well as the spices. Natural freshness makes a big difference. But if we don't support this difference, it may be lost forever to more convenient processes.

Supermarkets can do something about this and promote 'slow food', i.e. food that costs less in carbon. (Here's a line for them: 'Less carbon, but much more taste'.) We can do something too. Yes supermarkets are convenient, but lets get our Sunday or any special meal veg from a local grocer with connections to local farmers.

Good quality naturally fresh local food doesn't have to be expensive either. In Edinburgh we have a great charity called Edinburgh Community Food who carry out training, cooking lessons and make great tasting locally grown vegetables available to people who find it difficult to  have a healthy diet. So some of our most vulnerable citizens get the best at a low cost. They also make this available from the website for us to order, here.

Now that's a positive way to promote good health.

As seen in Bite Magazine

We got just a quick mention in Bite, but all I did was call. Why didn't I send them a sample! All the same, thank you Bite! We're honoured to be included.