Anglo-Indian food: A colonial delight!

Glitzy new Bengaluru’s colonial charm may be waning, but a legacy of that period — Anglo-Indian cuisine — continues to tickle taste buds ... and the funny bone too, writes Vijayasimha V

Karen Martin

Bridget White-Kumar

As India celebrates its 75th anniversary of independence, this small community continues to retain its unique culture, customs and cuisine.

Glitzy new Bengaluru’s colonial charm may be waning, but a legacy of that period — Anglo-Indian cuisine — continues to tickle taste buds ... and the funny bone too. “The cuisine is a staple of the community and is still being relished in Anglo-Indian households like it has been over the years and will live as long as the community is around,” says Bridget White-Kumar, author and food consultant on Anglo-Indian food.

Dishes like Country Captain Chicken Curry, Oxtail Curry and a Sunday favourite called the ‘Bad Word’ Curry (a euphemism for Ball Curry, to prevent blushes at the dining table), give Anglo-Indian delicacies a unique place in Bengaluru’s gastronomic spread. “The Ball Curry is usually an accompaniment with coconut rice or golden or saffron rice, owing to its turmeric tinge,” says Karen Martin, who used to run a cloud kitchen called House of Anglo, which gave a gourmet twist to some traditional Anglo-Indian dishes.

Another accompaniment with the coconut rice is what’s called the Devil Chutney or the Mother-in-Law’s tongue chutney, probably owing to its pungent bite. “The vinegar makes it pungent, and it is more of a relish than a chutney,” says Bridget, who adds that the coconut rice and Devil Chutney are typical of how Anglo-Indian food has imbibed influences from various cuisines. “The coconut is an adaptation of the South Indian custom while vinegar is a Portuguese contribution,” says Bridget. “Similarly, the Dutch gave us minces while cooking with wine was a French borrowing,” adds Bridget, who recently launched a free app called Bridget’s Anglo-Indian Recipes, which features more than 350 popular Anglo-Indian recipes selected from her cookbooks. “The app is my way of passing on traditional recipes to the next generation. With youngsters looking to experiment with new cuisines, this app would help preserve these age-old recipes,” says Bridget. Anglo-Indian food is a fusion of the meat-heavy English diet and the spice and colour-rich Indian food, evolving not only in kitchens of the community but from the British Raj’s departments like the railways and its clubs, according to Karen.

The dishes assume names that give a hint of their origins like the Railway Mutton Curry once relished by privileged first-class rail passengers and the Dak Bungalow Curry (probably bearing a stamp of the cook at the postal department’s circuit houses occupied by English officers). The unique Anglo-Indian masala is even going global, according to Karen, who says that the ingredients used in the Anglo-Indian chicken and pork curries have found their way into chicken puffs made by her cousins in Australia and are an instant hit. Evidently, Indian food was quite a challenge for the English, who could neither handle the pungency nor the pronunciation. So, the muligu thanni or pepper water got boiled to mulligatawny soup on the Englishman’s tongue, while the Indian khichdi got scrambled to kitchiri or kedgeree. These are celebrated Anglo-Indian dishes. Also called Club Food, owing to a variety of bar bites in its cuisine, Anglo-Indian food, with its complete meals, sides and celebrated desserts like the bread pudding and Anglo-layered trifles, is as unique as the community’s culture and part of the city’s heritage.

Quick & easy

Bridget White’s latest book on Anglo-Indian recipes The Microwave Cook Book of Anglo-Indian Recipes includes a host of easy-to-cook recipes of celebrated Anglo-Indian dishes that can be made in a microwave.

Khichdi & meat

(Serves 5)
Cooking time: 1hr
Prep time: 45 mins

Ingredients

½ cup pink lentils
1 ½ cup Basmati rice
500g of meat cubes
1 cup of meat stock
3 ½ cups of water
9 tbsp oil
1 onion sliced
½ cup coriander finely chopped
2 tsp of ginger garlic paste
2 bay leaves
1 cinnamon stick
2 star anise
1 tsp peppercorns
1 mace flower

Method

Soak lentils in water for 2 to 3 hrs.
Soak Basmati rice in water for 30 mins.
Pressure cook meat without salt till it is well cooked and tender. Once the meat is cooked keep aside one cup of stock.
Heat oil in a vessel, add spices, onion and ginger garlic paste. Sauté the mix till fragrant.
Add soaked lentils without water and fry well in the masala.
Add meat along with the drained rice and fry till fragrant.
Add the remaining stock and water and stir the mix.
Add finely chopped coriander and salt. Cover and cook till rice is well done and fluffy.
Leave on a very low flame covered for 10 mins.
Take off from heat and serve hot with raita, curry, or sambal.

(Recipe courtesy Karen Martin.)

(This column looks at some food fetishes and secrets from a city of gastronomes and beyond.)