Ok, so chez Spice Mogul we are just a little obsessed with gin. Why, you may ask? It’s certainly not the most popular of spirits. People seem to lean much more to fancy schmancy vodkas when looking for a kick. The really great thing about gin is its amazing food friendly qualities. And we are not talking a bout delicacy and nuance here as with an aged Bordeaux or Burgundy, we’re talking strong flavors and some pretty intense palate cleansing capabilities. Heavily seasoned dishes like a Madras Curry or our Bangkok Curry recipe cry out for a beverage that can keep up and not be over powered. Let’s face it, it’s hard to compliment a highly seasoned and highly spiced dish, but something needs to get in there to compliment the flavors , cleanse your palate and keep you going back for another bite. Enter the gin martini. Its cool, crisp blend of juniper and other botanicals compliments everything from Indian curries to steaks and iceberg lettuce salads (with blue cheese dressing of course).

So next time you enjoy a full flavored, spicy dish, instead of reaching for a beer or glass of Reisling, shake yourself a nice dry martini instead and enjoy an even bigger party in your mouth.

The Ingredients

• 1 packet of Bangkok Curry whole spice blend
• 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken (either white or dark meat)
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 medium yellow onion
• 1 medium green pepper
• 1 medium yellow pepper
• 400 ml coconut milk – Lite coconut milk will also work
• 2 tablespoons fish sauce

• 2-3 scallions – for optional garnish
• chopped cilantro – for optional garnish.

The Cooking

Cut the chicken into 1 inch pieces. Chop the onion and peppers in to a 1 inch dice. With an electric grinder or mortar and pestle, grind the Bangkok Curry blend to a fine powder. Heat the oil in the pan, then bloom the ground spices for two minutes without burning. Add the chopped onions and peppers and cook 5-10 minutes over medium heat until softened. Add the chicken and saute, stirring frequently, for 5-10 minutes. When the chicken has cooked, add the coconut milk and fish sauce. Heat through and simmer for 5 minutes until the sauce has thickened slightly.

Serve over steamed jasmine rice or pad thai noodles with an optional garnish of shredded scallions or chopped cilantro.

Makes four servings. The leftovers, if there are any, are even better the second day. Seriously.

Ok, so after a couple more rounds of tinkering we did come up with a winner formula in the Thai curry blend finals. We decided which “child” we liked the best, and would take to market. It was tough, but frankly worth yet another round of tests. The final whole spice blend is just a little deeper in color, a little more nuanced in flavor and a lot more jazzy on the palate. We think you and yours will enjoy it tremendously, so watch for it in our first round of releases.

But what to call our new whole spice blend? “Thai Curry” sounds so pedestrian and doesn’t do it justice, so stay tuned as we roll out a more playful name. By any chance if you have a suggestion, email us at info@spicemogul.com by October 31, 2009. If we choose your name, we’ll give you a $100.00 store credit.

Spent the evening experimenting with the Thai Curry spice blend. The last time the results weren’t so overwhelming, so it was back to the drawing board. Tonight we tried two different versions in parallel. We tried to keep it as scientific as possible, but one of us forgot to shake the coconut milk, so one batch was a tad thinner than the other. And the pans were of different size. So, good news is that we really (I mean really) loved both batches (more fish sauce, more ginger, more lemon grass, less kaffir lime leaf than last time) the bad news is we have to do everything all over again to see which we **really** like better, and which one gets to go to market. It’s a dirty job…

Update in a couple of days, once we give our taste buds a rest.