We have good friends heading over for a meal tonight, so I decided to prepapre the majority of a select handful of our favourite Indian dishes early. With this cunning plan, I can concentrate on the talking and drinking this evening rather than slaving away in the kitchen. Assembling the ingredients for roti, prawn puri, chicken hariyali, masala khumbi and Afghan chilau, I discovered that I had run out of my usual red chili paste. A quick dash across the road to my local Bengali soon solved this problem and I returned with a large bunch of fresh coriander, a bag of fiercesome green Asian chilis and a small jar of red chili paste. I must admit that 99.8% of my buying decision was down to the simple Anglo-Bengali label which simply proclaims: Very Hot with no fuss or exclamation marks.
Having dipped a finger to have a good taste during cooking, I can verify that, in a similar fashion to a certain brand of woodcare products, Mr Naga’s paste is exactly what it says on the tin…and how. Very rich and very hot. If you are partial to cooking food from the Indian subcontinent[1] or simply a chilihead, it is well worth seeking out. If you are unable to track it down, fear not because it can be bought online here.
[1] If you are and you haven’t stumbled across the UFDI newsgroup yet, I can thoroughly recommend the group as a great resource and forum for all things related to food from the Indian subcontinent and Indian restaurant cooking.