Base sauces and marinades are key in my kitchen. There are three essentials I always have in my fridge/freezer and always made sure I packed for my boys when they went to university. You can make so many different dishes from just these three.. something I’ll be teaching at my future cooking classes.

1.The Tandoori Paste

I always keep a small jar of my version of Tandoori paste in the fridge, this spicy aromatic paste is versatile and a great time saver that can be used for chicken, vegetables, seafood, tofu etc! Its vegetarian, gluten-free, nut-free and without any artificial red food colouring!

On this occasion I’ve used it to marinate my salmon fillets for dinner tonight!

Ingredients

* 1 1/2 Tsps Chili Powder
* ½ Tsp Black Pepper
* 1 tsp crushed coriander seeds
* 1/2 tsp cumin powder
* ¼ Teaspoon Cinnamon Powder
* Salt to taste
* 1 tsp kasturi methi
* 1tsp chaat masala
* 1 1/2 Tbs fresh coarsely ground ginger/garlic
* 1tsp finely chopped fresh coriander
* 2 tablespoon oil
* 1-2 tablespoons of yoghurt (optional)

2.Indo Chinese Marinade

Pan Asian food, one of my favourites and you can get so creative when you have an Indian Asian background. From Sushi, Chinese, Indian to Thai all these mixed with rich, complex flavours that make your mouth water!

One of my ‘go to’ marinades is ‘indo chinese’ inspired! Main ingredient garlic.. I use it for stirfrys, marinading chicken, fish spicing up cassava and paneer especially.. You’ll have to come to my cooking classes for the recipe for this one though!

It seems daunting but it’s actually not too difficult to make a Pan Asian meal out of basic supermarket ingredients as well, just because the everyday cupboard sauces you keep will lift your food to another level. So as well as recipes, I will be giving out plenty of tips and tricks to make cooking simple but tasty at my classes.

Finally it’s not a marinade but what I always have batches of in the freezer is my :

3.Onion and Tomato Base Sauce

I’ve perfected the flavour so from this one base I can make up to 10 different dishes. I use this for meat curries, salad, vegetables, fish you could say almost anything. Just using a few essentials to create a base sauce which can be tweaked once cooking with extra spices, herbs …. is perfect for storing and pulling out when you are short on time.

I’ve stocked up on all this for my son and hubby as I’m off on a trip to India to shop, eat and have a little R&R time.. can’t wait to try out the street food and learn about new dishes I can put my twist on.

I’ll be updating you with my finds so keep an eye out on my Instagram page!!