ANGLO INDIAN CUISINE
Before starting the blog we made a list of what we should do to avail
in depth knowledge in Anglo Indian cuisine
,
Books on British culture and heritage influence on India
Books by Bridget white
Anglo Indian recopies in cook books
Meeting Anglo Indian families
What today’s chef think about Anglo Indian cuisine
Internet surfing for various articles and sites on Anglo Indian cuisine
INFERENCE ON HISTORY
Anglo-Indian cuisine is the cuisine that
developed during the British Raj in India, as the British wives interacted with
their Indian cooks.
The cuisine introduced dishes such as kedgeree, mulligatawny
and pish pash to English palates. One of the few Anglo-Indian foods that has
had a lasting impact on English cuisine is chutney.
Anglo-Indian cuisine was brought to England in the
1930s by the Veeraswamy restaurant, followed by a few others, but not by
typical Indian restaurants.
‘Pish-Pash’ is an Anglo-Indian one pot meal, where rice is
cooked in chicken stock along with the whole spices. This is a light, hearty
and healthy dish. A perfect main course meal after some snacks and cocktail.
Recipe Preparation
- Wash the rice well.
- Heat oil in a cooker, add ginger-garlic paste, salt along with pieces of chicken.
- add 1 and 1/2 cups of water into this
- Remove from heat after 2-3 whistles.
- Heat 1 tbsp ghee in a non-stick pan , add whole garam masalaa.
- add sliced onions, sauté .
- Add rice, green chilies and julienned gingers,
- Now add the chicken stock, keep the chicken pieces separate, don’t add them this time. Cover and cook on low flame.
- When the rice is half cooked add the chicken pieces.
- Add sugar and 1 tbsp ghee when the rice is thoroughly cooked .
Mulligatawny is an English soup with origins in Indian cuisine. The
name originates from the Tamil words millagai / milagu and thanni and can be
translated as "pepper-water”.
- Melt the butter in a saucepan add in the onion, garlic, carrots, celery and sweet potato.
- Stir in the apple pieces and sprinkle the curry powder.
- Crumble the stock cube into a measuring jug, and pour over the boiling water.
- Pour into the pan, and stir in the tomato purée and mango chutney.
- Cook until the vegetables are tender.
- While the soup is simmering, half-fill a medium pan with water and bring to the boil. Add the rice and return to the boil. Cook for 10 minutes, or until the rice is tender. Drain the rice in a sieve and rinse under running water until cold.
- When the soup is ready, cool the soup for a few minutes and blend with a stick blender until smooth before stirring in the cooled rice.
- Heat the soup for 3–4 minutes until piping hot and check the seasoning, add salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.
kedgeree , In India, khichari (among other English
spellings) usually refers to any of a large variety of legume-and-rice dishes.
They range from quite moist and mildly seasoned (geeli khichari) to
thick, spicy and fairly dry (sookhi khichari), both often including
other vegetables; the latter sometimes includes nuts and fruit. These dishes
are not made with curry powder, since most Indian cooks do not use it, creating
instead a separate spice mixture designed for each recipe and either
dry-toasted or fried in oil before inclusion.
This dish moved to Victorian
Britain and changed dramatically. In the West, Kedgeree is a dish
consisting of cooked, flaked fish (traditionally smoked haddock), boiled rice,
parsley, hard-boiled eggs, curry powder, butter or cream.
Q. WHAT IS ANGLO INDIAN COMMUNITY ?
A. The term Anglo-Indians can refer to at least two groups
of people: those with mixed Indian and British ancestry, and people of British
descent born or living in the Indian subcontinent.
DID YOU KNOW ?
Tits and Bits of Anglo Indian Culture and Cuisine
Culinary Traditions
The term Anglo-Indian refers to people of not just mixed Indian and
British ancestry, but also includes descendants of Indo-Portuguese, Indo-Dutch
and Indo-French origin. Borrowing heavily from Britain’s culinary
traditions, the distinctive cuisine of the community grew out of culinary
inventions by the khansamas (Indian cooks). Under the guidance of their memsahib, they
modified European dishes with local spices, cooking techniques and ingredients
to satisfy the tastes of their British masters.
In South India, Anglo-Indian dishes tend to use pepper,cinnamon and cardamom, while souring
agents such as vinegar and kokum are popular in the Goa-Mumbai region.In the East, the gravies use fewer spices.” In her book The Great Curries of India, Camellia Panjabi describes the antecedents of the dish.
The country captain chicken is another favorite. In the
past, homegrown country chicken was used in the preparation of this curry and
the process would take over two hours over a wood-fired oven. The slow cooking
process and the chicken used lend this curry its signature heavenly flavor. It
is said that the dish got its name from a grandmother who cooked it for her
grandson, who was a captain in the army. Another account claims that the dish
was a favorite with captains of British trade ships and so the name.
A big part of the British club culture was high tea, in which tea along
with snacks and baked pastries were served on delicate china.
capsicum, onion, tomato, carrot, peas and cauliflower. Fresh and
crunchy with the zing of hot chillies it is the perfect accompaniment to the
some of the milder dishes. Believed to have originated during colonial times as
a method of heating up leftovers, jalfrezi gets its name from jhal meaning ‘spicy
hot’ in Bengali.
A big part of the British club culture was high tea, in which tea along
with snacks and baked pastries was
served in delicate china. Pantaras or
pan rolls is one such snack which is
still served in clubs around the
country. Crunchy exterior with a
mincemeat filling, it is the perfect
companion to a cup of Darjeeling tea.
Equally enticing snack options include
the kabiraji cutlet (egg covered chicken cutlet), fowl cutlet,rissoles and fish croquettes.
Anglo-Indian desserts tend to be an invitation to
sin. Besides Christmas favourites like plum cake,
kulkuls, rose cookies, and marzipan,there is the
humble yet delicious bread pudding. Originally a way to use up stale bread, the
bread pudding has slowly transformed over the years into its rich and tempting
present-day avatar. Anglo-Indian cuisine is about more than just food. It
speaks of India’s colonial legacy
WHAT DO TODAY’S CHEF THINK ABOUT ANGLO INDIAN CUISINE ?
CHEF MANISH AGGARWAL – HE IS CURRENTLY JUNIOR SOUS CHEF IN AUSTRALIA
AND IS WORKING IN AN INDIAN RESTAURANT , WE CONNECTED WITH HIM THROUGH MAIL
AND ASKED HIM HIS VIEW ON ANGLO INDIAN
CUISINE .
CONTACT HIM ON FB - /manish.aggarwal
Hi , when I worked in The Oberoi
, New Delhi we use to get a lot of punjabi guests there and because most of
them had one or the other family member outside they knew about ANGLO INDIAN
culture and food and it was quite surprising them asking for dishes like
CHICKEN BUFFATH - which scrolls down to
indian spices and scottish style chicken served in stew with mixed soft vegeatbles
.So yes people are aware about it . And one of the many dishes that not
many people know is actually an anglo indian dish- PRAWN PILAU or PILAF .
Now here in Sydney I find a lot of indians and some probably are ANGLO
INDIANS , they like having one wholesome
dish rather than ordering sabzi , dal or
roti they would have a roll or a stew with rice and khichdi is very famouos
among indian here.
CHEF RANA CHOWDHARY –
WORKS AT OBEROI GRAND KOLKATA ,
Contact him on FB -
/rana.chowdhary.7370
Well
, Kolkata is a hub of ANGLO INDIANs , we
find a lot of them coming to our hotel .
And
specially during the winter rose cookies is a top sell , Christmas plum cakes
and ginger cookies and if I am not wrong because Kolkata was once considered
the trading capital of India at British Raj the culture and hereditary have
flown down since centuries . According to me they have very mild taste and do
not prefer very spicy food . Moreover they love mixing carbohydrates with any
meat mostly white meat - fish curries
with steam rice are on the go here all the time .
Bridget White. Bridget White (Kumar)
was born and brought up in Kolar Gold Fields, a small mining
town in the erstwhile Mysore State (now known as Karnataka), India, which was
famous for its Colonial ambiance. She comes from a well-known Anglo-Indian
family also she grew up to be a homecook and publish books on ANGLO INDIAN cuisine .
Bridget White, an expert in Anglo Indian
cuisine. Express photo by JITHENDRA BRIDGET WHITE-KUMAR – COOK BOOK AUTHOR
AND FOOD CONSULTANT (ANGLO-INDIAN CUISINE) Bridget
White-Kumar is a Cookery Book Author, Anglo-Indian Food Consultant and Culinary
Historian. She has authored 7 Recipe books on Anglo-Indian Cuisine. Her area of
expertise is in Colonial Anglo-Indian Food and she has gone through a lot of
effort in reviving the old forgotten dishes of the Colonial British Raj
Era.
Bridget is also an Independent
Freelance Consultant on Food Related matters. She has assisted many
Restaurants, Hotels and Clubs in Bangalore and elsewhere with her knowledge of
Colonial Anglo-Indian Food besides helping them to revamp and reinvent their
Menus by introducing new dishes which are a combination of both Continental and
Anglo-Indian.
Hear from a local
resident –
We tried to look for some Anglo Indian families in Hyderabad , Mrs. jean Adams residence : Secundrabad , Hyderabad She was
born in madras , her father is a bruiser
. She told us that Anglo Indian cuisine is not very spicy , its more about
combining Indian light spices with Basic meats mostly lamb and chicken . Its
more of a home cooking , but hearty wholesome meal . Usually they eat a grand
lunch and dinner is very light . Her favourite is the rota chicken.
LIMITATIONS :
We tried our level best to find out about anglo
indian cuisine , Through chef’s , local anglo indian residents ,
books and internet . But due to time constraints we could not meet
many residents , Also we had to confirm and reconfirm the
informstion provided on the internet because we need to prove it with support .
Looking through recipies and finding books that concerntrate on anglo indian cuisine specifically are very
few hence a rigorous study and research had to be done Because of the timr frame it has been such
that traditiond have faded down and there are very few anglo indians with a
traditional culture and food heritage .
SYNOPSIS :
Anglo indian cuisine
is mostly about home cooking , They are about how britishers got influenced
with our home grown spices and how they adapted and modified there dishes to
our palate taste. Knowing that chicken tiikka masalaa is one of the most famous
dish in united kingdom is no surprise . The cuisine is rich and the mix of
culture and traditions have made it even more intresting to learn about . Goa
and kolkata still have large anglo indian population in comparision to other
parts of india .The cuisine dominates over lentils , chicken and ground spices
– cinnamon , star anise , nutmeg , cloves , etc . Cooking utensils are no
different than ours . Though indian cookery has influenced the britishers that
gave rise to a whole new cuisine but tandoor or typical cuisines of indian are
still very distict on their grounds than anglo indian cuisine .
CONCLUSION
:
The purpose was fullfilled for the project , We learnt a lot about the
fading culture and traditions which was
wonderful also got to hear some war
stories from mrs. jean adams . We learnt about new dishes and how indian
traditions influenced the cuisine and taste of britishers. Also the charm about
christmas , plum cakes , ginger breads
and joy candy sticks . We learnt that
british women got so fascinated with indian cooks that they let the cooks give
them classes in how to use the spices and where to use them with what meats .It
was also very nice to know that , chefs
like bridget white kumar is oing so much to keep her tradtional and cultural
food alive .
BIBLIOGRAPHY
:
BOOKS :
ANGLO INDIAN
CUISINE A LEGACY OF FLAVOURS FROM THE PAST – BRIDGET WHITE
VEGETERIAN DISHES –
BRIDGET WHITE
Click here for more information on Culinary Arts:-www.iactchefacademy.com
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