Seeds of Change Madras Simmer Sauce

Bonnie: Simmer sauces are the new convenience food. Keeping a jar in your pantry allows you to make a meal with a foreign flare almost immediately as the sauces instantly capture various regional flavors that would require a mixture of many spices not traditionally found in the American cupboard.

When I first tested Seeds of Change Madras Simmer Sauce, I had no meat or fish on hand, but I did have lots of veggies. I sautéed an onion, added fresh spinach, steamed broccoli and cooked Dutch baby potatoes, then simmered them in the Madras Simmer Sauce for 10 minutes per the instructions and served it over jasmine rice. It was yummy, although hardly red-hot, as the label suggests. Instead, the resulting flavor has a mild heat and creamy richness. It’s also low in calories, fat and sodium compared with other simmer sauces. One-third cup contains 60 calories, 4 grams of total fat (0.5 gram saturated) and 240 milligrams of sodium.

Early last spring, we recommended a Thai Kitchens Red Curry 10-Minute Simmer Sauce. I liked the flavor, but did report that the sauce had too much sodium. Seeds of Change’s entire line contain about three-quarters less sodium than comparable Thai Kitchen’s simmer sauces — a fact that would have me buying Seeds of Change’s simmer sauces instead. Madras is the best.

Bryan: All of the attempts to reproduce my favorite Indian cuisines in my home kitchen have resulted in flops. There, I’ve admitted that aloud. I feel better. It’s not that my homemade chicken tikka masala was inedible, it just wasn’t what I wanted it to be. Over and over again. Though I hate to admit it, Indian food has been a definite shortcoming in my culinary development.

I’ve spent a good amount of time in kitchens (my own and those of many restaurants). Having been able to make my mark with a wide variety of flavors — rich béarnaise, spicy pad thai, earthy pesto and even an all-day simmering Bolognese — I thought I could hack a curry. No such luck.

Making a good curry is like making any good sauce; there are time-tested ratios of seasoning, varying amounts of heat and stirring, as well as traditional preparation methods to be observed. I’ve done sauces before, but I keep failing at curry. Why? I realized that what has continuously thrown me off is the complexity of spices. India has an infinite number of very exotic seasonings, so I find that every attempt at a new curry flavor results in the need for an entire new spice rack! Turmeric, cumin, coriander, fenugreek and red pepper may or may not be part of your current collection, but they are part of any good curry base. If you haven’t gotten to know this motley crew, get going. Creating a good curry will require a good bit of familiarization with all of them!

But I want curry now! Enter Seeds of Change and its wonderful line of simmer sauces spanning the entire heat range. Flavors range from the mild coconut-ginger Korma and tomato-onion Tikka Masala, to the medium bell pepper Jalfrezi and the hot Madras curry. This line has truly simplified your next Indian endeavor!

Yes, yes. This is not a substitute for home cooking; but while I’m still learning, why do I need to go hungry? These sauces are truly simple to prepare. Use them with meat, fish, tofu or vegetables for a truly authentic meal in minutes.

My favorite so far has been tilapia, sautéed in the Madras curry and accompanied by a side of broccoli and cauliflower Korma. Such amazing scents emanating from my kitchen… This is what I’ve been waiting for from my stove top! I promise I’ll practice, but thank you Seeds of Change in the meantime! Even a great Indian friend of mine, with a very discerning palate, was thoroughly impressed!

A quick note. Seeds of Change is an amazing company. The group was founded in 1989 with a mission to make organic seeds widely available. Their greater contribution in my mind has been their attempts to preserve countless heirloom seed varieties. It is sad — no, shocking — to note that the number of fruit and vegetable varieties in the United States has been reduced by more than 90 percent in the past 50 years. We are, as a society, in danger of losing our food heritage to the “advances” of modern industrial agriculture. I, for one, think it is wonderful to see a commercial food enterprise taking these issues head-on.

Eric: As unlikely as it is, especially to readers of this blog, if you’ve never tried a curry sauce, Seeds of Change is a great company to start with. Aside from producing a variety of Indian-style heat-and-serve simmer sauces, Seeds of Change is a heavy promoter of the organic and sustainably grown-food lifestyle, especially with regard to all of its products. The company offers four varieties of the sauces, each unique in seasoning and level of heat. My opinion for the sauces, as for most food, is to have a variety on hand. The Madras, although recommended by our team, is a “red-hot curry sauce,” and if your stomach is anything like mine, you might want to tone down with a traditionally mild Tikka Masala, or the medium heat of the Jalfrezi sauce.