Does anyone know if its possible to buy Bottle Masala in the UK. I remember it being used in cooking when living in Bombay, sorry Mumbai

Looking on the internet, it appears to be a word used for a type of curry masala mix, recipes are there on the net. You can buy many, many different curry powders and speciality recipe masala mixes in UK from most Indian/Pakistani and some local grocers/supermarkets. there are several brand names available.

There are these 2 recipes on this site;

Curry powder

Curry powder from Srilanka

Mamta

Brian,

I haven't seen Bottle masala for sale (in London or Manchester)and I would think it is a very desi-Indian thing. A look at recipes will show a couple of things: there is no one recipe (most often the case) and some of the ingredients are very Indian and I would think nearly impossible to source outside of the Isc.

However, as there are so many ingredients (reminiscent of the Moroccan Ras el Hanout) that leaving out a few is not going to matter much. Also, the flavours are not subtle, so only a pinch would be necessary to give a dish an authentic touch. My suggestion would be to ask a friend/relation who is visiting Mumbai to pickup a bottle or three.

Note that this is a well used and well known masala (around Mumbai anyway)and not to be confused with any curry powder. The latter are not used (see qualification below) in Indian cooking, but masalas (spice mixes) certainly are, including the ubiquitous garam masala. These should not be confused with modern spice mixes which are being produced in India to assist in making the more well known dishes. These mixes may reduce the time taken to prepare a dish, but suffer from the fact that all the spices are added at one time. This is not the way most Indian dishes are prepared, and one is likely to end up with a (much) inferior product. It is ironic IMHO, that these spice mixes are becoming the new 'curry powders'and causing the same problems.