Skip to main content

Karen’s Spice Kitchen is Truly Curry in a Hurry

If Karen Paly’s husband ever got tired of eating curry five nights a week, he never let on. It was all part of her strategy to create a business to make it easy for others to cook awesome dishes in a short amount of time.

Originally from South Africa, Paly visited her dad in Australia and friends invited them to dinner. The friend said she was going to prepare a curry dish and Paly knew from her own cooking experience that dinner probably wouldn’t be served for a couple of hours. When dinner was ready to serve 45 minutes later, Paly was amazed and wanted to know the secret. She found out it was prepared using a pre-blended spice packet created by an Australian company. She and her husband bought dozens of their blends and then inquired about being the U.S. distributor—they were now living in Asheville, N.C. The company declined, but invited Karen to develop her own, so that’s exactly what she did.

Recommended Videos

chicken-tikka-masalaAfter months of developing recipes, grinding spices, and using her husband and friends as taste testers, she debuted Karen’s Spice Kitchen in January 2016. She works out of her own production facility and hand packs the spices herself, including putting the mixes in bags and pasting the labels on the front. It’s labor intensive, but necessary as she grows her business to the next level, which she hopes will include machine-automation that can perform many of these tedious steps for her.

She currently sells 12 varieties online and in several retail stores in North Carolina. They include Butter Chicken, Mango Chicken Curry, Chicken Tikka Masala, Chicken and Chickpea Curry, Lamb Korma, Lamb Rogan Josh, Thai Chicken Satay, Beef Madras, Indian Shrimp Curry, South Indian Veggie Curry, Bobotie (South African Curried Meatloaf), and Massaman Chicken/Beef Curry. Each retails for $5.99. All recipes serves four to six people.

Paly encourages at-home cooks to be creative and customize the recipes. “It may call for chicken or beef, but you can also use fish, tofu, or just vegetables,” she said. “Or, if it calls for heavy cream, you can exchange with coconut milk.”

Here’s how it works: Each packet of pre-blended spices features a specific recipe on the back. Prep time is around 20 minutes and involves dicing an onion and cooking the ingredients in a pan until they turn translucent, add garlic and cook for another minute, and then add the contents of the large spice packet (there’s a smaller hot chili pepper packet included, if you want to make your dish spicier). Cook for a few seconds, stirring constantly. Then add the other ingredients of the specific recipe you are preparing (listed on the back of the package). It takes about 40 minutes total (less for the shrimp recipe) to put a home cooked meal on the table. It’s also a great to wow friends or unexpected dinner guests.

Here’s the recipe for the Chicken Tikka Masala. You can also see the step-by-step process on Karen’s Spice Kitchen’s YouTube Channel.

Ingredients:

  • 1 large onion, chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic, crushed
  • 2 tbsp butter or cooking oil of your choice
  • 2-3 pounds of boneless chicken breast, cut into 1 or 2-inch pieces
  • 2 tbsp lime or lemon juice
  • 1 cup heavy cream (substitute with yogurt or coconut milk)
  • 1 small can tomato paste
  • 1 cup chicken broth
  • 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro (plus extra sprigs for garnish, if desired)

Three easy steps:

  1. Chop and saute onion, garlic and spices
  2. Add protein and other ingredients
  3. Simmer (cook time on front of each package)
Marla Milling
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Marla Hardee Milling is a full-time freelance writer living in a place often called the Paris of the South, Sante Fe of the…
From sangiovese to syrah: the ultimate guide to dry red wines
Some of the greatest wines ever made
Cut of grilled steak with glass of red wine

Chances are your favorite red wine is dry. I know that not because I have a crystal ball, but because pretty much every popular red wine is dry. (I urge you to discover the many delights of sweet red wine, but not right now.) Before we get into types, let’s address the big question: What makes a wine dry?

Wines are called dry when they have comparatively low amounts of residual sugars, meaning they taste less sweet (technically below 1%, or nine grams of sugar per liter). All wines would be dry if fermentation weren’t halted or they were back-sweetened. Yeast will “ferment until dry,” meaning it will gobble up all the sugar there is, no crumbs left. This dry descriptor applies to all types of wine – sparkling, white, red, and rosé. The first time dry appears in writing referring to wine was in Richard Ames’s 1691 poem “The Last Search After Claret, &C.” in which the narrator is looking for a red Bordeaux but is offered sweet port instead:

Read more
Columbia River Gorge travel guide: Where to eat, what to do, and where to stay
So much to dine on and do in this PNW wonderland
Columbia River Gorge.

It's pretty amazing that you can be entering the Columbia River Gorge from downtown Portland, Oregon in just about 30 minutes. The scenic expanse feels worlds away—a wonderland of waterfalls, towering cliffs, evergreens, and a massive river in between. Here exists the ideal balancing act between premiere outdoor adventure opportunities and exceptional food and drink.

Spring and summer are the best times to visit this stunning landscape. During the former season, you get every imaginable shade of green, with wildflowers to boot. During the latter season, warm days beg for a plunge into one of the countless creeks and rivers, followed by a refreshing beer and a sound meal.

Read more
This award-winning chef says the secret to better BBQ is relaxing more
How to level up your grill this season
Grilling

Chef Charlie McKenna has a long history in the world of BBQ,  learning very early on about the art of authentic Southern BBQ from his Grandma Lillie. Chef McKenna has won two Memphis in May victories and a variety of other awards on the competitive BBQ circuit, teaching him a thing or two about the art of grilling. Just in time for grilling season, Chef McKenna shares his best tips and tricks you can implement right from home -- from the best BBQ sauces to the underrated tips every backyard barbecue should know. Here's what he shared.
Tips for backyard grillers

As a chef, Charlie McKenna is under a lot of pressure when competing in BBQ competitions. However, his best tip for backyard grillers is to relax and focus on having fun in the process of grilling and smoking. " Too often, people get wrapped up in trying to make everything perfect and forget to enjoy the process. We’re not curing cancer — we’re cooking food for our friends and family to enjoy. When you're having a good time, that energy translates into the food. You’ll experiment more, learn more, and ultimately serve better barbecue. If it ever feels stressful, take a step back, crack a cold one, and remember why you started grilling in the first place," he shares.

Read more