{"id":8550,"date":"2012-03-13T22:37:59","date_gmt":"2012-03-13T22:37:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.diaryofanadi.co.uk\/?p=8550"},"modified":"2022-12-26T20:11:09","modified_gmt":"2022-12-26T20:11:09","slug":"basaar-spice-blend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/diaryofanadi.co.uk\/?p=8550","title":{"rendered":"Basaar Spice Blend"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The brand I use these days – King of Spice<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Someone found the blog on the search term \u201cbasaar from pakistan to use in curries do it go old\u201d. I mention Kashmiri Basaar in my curry recipe<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All spices deteriorate with age. At best, they lose their aromatic qualities. At worst, they go mouldy (I discovered that with some whole cumin seeds recently \u2013 admittedly, they were about 2 years old and stuck at the back of a cupboard).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spice blends are no exception. If you make your own blends, they are best after a few weeks, and good for a few months. But they do gradually go downhill. Commercial blends are just the same, and unless you use a lot of the stuff it isn\u2019t a good idea to buy the really big bags.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I would imagine that a blend brought over directly from Pakistan (or any other country) would not have the same quality control associated with its preparation, and this could easily lead to a poorer shelf-life than commercial blends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also reminds me of something that happened to me some years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was working in Pakistan one time and I brought back a huge bag of pistachios. I used to take them to the squash club to share out. Their freshness noticeably deteriorated over several weeks \u2013 one of the drawbacks to buying stuff in bulk. When you were eating them, they had a sort of dust covering the nut.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a hot summer in the UK, and I\u2019d transferred these pistachios to smaller bags. I\u2019d noticed a lot of small moths in the house, but I put it down to the weather. But one time at the squash club, I put a pistachio in my mouth and felt something cold on my lip. I spat it out and noticed a fair-sized caterpillar!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had a thought, and when I got home I looked at the bags of nuts. They were crawling with caterpillars and moths \u2013 a few escapees were what I\u2019d been seeing around the house. It turned out the \u201cdust\u201d covering the nuts was moth eggs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s no harm using a spice mix you\u2019ve brought over from Pakistan, but if it doesn\u2019t taste right then bin it and buy some more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n