The Spice Shop

Orange Flower Water, 260ml Used extensively in Middle Eastern cooking for stews, dressings and sweets. Unit price: £4.99 (approx. €5.59)

Pomegranate Molasses, 300ml This sour yet sweet syrup is added to almost everything I cook. It gives a rich taste with a hint of fruit and works well in marinades, dressings, stews, tagines and BBQ rubs. Just experiment with it. you will be amazed. Unit price: £4.99 (approx. €5.59)

Rose Water, 260ml Rose water is used from India to North Africa via the Middle East in all sorts of baking, cooking, marinades and dressings. Once you finished slaving over the hot pots, try it as a face toner. it works a treat. Unit price: £4.99 (approx. €5.59)

Vanilla Extract, 10ml This Madagascan Vanilla extract is 95% vanilla beans. Very thick and tasty, a little goes a long way due to its high concentration. Unit price: £3.95 (approx. €4.42)

Parsley

Make a parsley sauce for white fish: make a thin bechamel and add single cream and lots of dried parsley before serving. Delicious! You can also make a kidney cleansing tea from dried parsley.

Curry Basic mix

Dry roast the spices in a frying pan, cool and grind. Fry onion, ginger and garlig in a little oil. Add the spices, 1 tsp/person, and fry a couple of minutes. Add meat or vegetables and stock. Bring to the boil, lower heat and cook until the meat or veg are tender. Check seasoning - you may want to add salt. Serve with rice.

Roasted Curry mild

Brown onions in oil or ghee, add coarsely chopped ginger, meat, and spice mix (1 teaspoon per person), roll around, cover with stock and cook until meat is done. Finish by stirring in organic coconut milk or plain yogurt.

Aniseeds, green

Try making shortbread flavoured with aniseed: Mix 4 oz butter + 2 oz sugar. Add 6 oz plain flour and 2 tsp aniseeds. Roll the dough out to 1/2" thickness and stamp out biscuits. Chill for 20 mins then bake at 190°/gas 5 for 15-20 mins. Cool on the tray.