Riyaz Jalil is a qualified accountant. He's worked at KPMG, set up 15 Video Ezy stores and been a project manager for a number of years. So what is he doing producing curry sauces for Auckland farmers' markets? "My industry was in decline and I could see I needed to do something different. We have a lot of Kiwi friends and every time they come over for dinner, they always ask why they can't buy pastes and pre-made sauces that taste like the food they have at our house."
Riyaz realised it was true and there was a niche for home-made Indian cooking sauces so he started investigating the possibility of producing them to sell. "It's quite a process, going through all the council consent but we got there in the end." he says. Originally from Suva, Riyaz came here as a student 25 years ago and he uses traditional Fijian Indian curry recipes to make his product saying cheekily that they are "far better than anything you'll get in India".
He started selling his Naaz sauces in June this year and it's already been a huge success. "You know it's working when people come back for more," says Riyaz. "If not, you need to change something."
Seems it is working and he has plenty of repeat customers in the five markets he sells at. His range includes a traditional Indian curry paste in regular, hot or extra hot and a butter chicken in regular and hot. I'm not a huge butter chicken fan but this sauce does make it everything the dish should be, and I really liked the idea that you just stir yoghurt or cream through at the end to taste so you can determine the intensity and richness. The curry pastes are excellent and the closest thing to home-made I've tasted anywhere. The base one is mild enough to cook for kids and you can just separate it out halfway through and add chilli for those who like it hot. I slow cooked it with a cheap cut of beef and it was fantastic.
The sauces are good and chunky and have turmeric, garlic, ginger, roasted garam masala, tomatoes, onions salt and oil in them. It's the "bits" that give it a home-cooked feel. I would recommend keeping one of these in your fridge rather than settling for takeout where you can count the pieces of meat swimming in a sea of creamy gravy.
