Madhur Jaffrey on the Origins of Curry

Madhur Jaffrey is the leading authority on Indian food in the West. She is the author of more than thirty cookbooks, an acclaimed theater and film actor, host of American and British television programs, and a seven-time James Beard Award winner. Born in Delhi, Madhur studied acting and moved to London as a young adult to attend the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

Missing her mother’s cooking, Madhur asked her for the recipes she grew up eating. Using her mother’s notes, Madhur says, “I was able to recreate a lot of the dishes that I used to get at home, and I found that discovery absolutely wonderful.” She compiled these recipes to form the basis of An Invitation to Indian Cooking, the critically acclaimed book that launched her culinary career.

Despite its pervasive use to describe Indian food in the West, the term “curry” isn’t Indian. “It’s a very confusing word,” Madhur Jaffrey says, “because it means different things to different people.” Indeed, the word “curry” doesn’t appear in any of India’s official languages. Here’s where it came from:

• Sixteenth century: The origins of the word curry are murky. Still, historians agree that the term first appeared in a sixteenth-century Portuguese travelogue, likely a transliteration of the Tamil word “kari” (a watery sauce served with rice).
• Eighteenth century: The Indian subcontinent’s British colonizers came to use the term curry for any dish of vegetables, meat, or fish cooked in a spicy sauce. The first Indian curry recipe in Britain appeared in The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy by Hannah Glasse in 1747. British recipes have called for premade curry powder since at least 1796.
• Twentieth century: In the twentieth century, curry became slang for a specific style of Indian cooking widely available in the United Kingdom: cream-based, often heavy on turmeric, inspired by North Indian Mughlai cuisine.
• Today: In the West, curry is a catchall term for various spicy, sauce-based dishes cooked in different South and Southeast Asian styles. However, some chefs and food writers have started to push back against the word curry, encouraging Western eaters to call Bengali, Pakistani, and Indian dishes by their proper names.

“How can you take such a big country with so many states within it, with such different cuisines within it, where every town has specialties and special dishes—how can you take all that food from around India and call it all curry?” — Madhur Jaffrey

Curry powder is a commercially available spice blend, the main ingredient of which (making up a quarter to half of the powders by weight) is usually turmeric, a South Asian rhizome with a bright yellow color and earthy flavor. British colonists modeled curry powder after the practice in Indian cuisine of making spice blends, such as garam masala.

In India, these spice blends are specific to different dishes and typically made by toasting and grinding whole spices (like cardamom, coriander, curry leaves, fennel seeds, fenugreek, and mustard seeds) as needed. The British interpretation of Indian spices and flavors spawned several unique takes on curry, including:

• European ketchup: Curry-flavored ketchup is a popular condiment for sausages and french fries in Germany, Denmark, and the Netherlands.
• Jamaican curry: Jamaican curried goat with rice typically features allspice.
• Kare (Japanese curry): Japan, via England, learned about curry powder in the nineteenth century. Japanese curry is sweet and typically served as a roux-based sauce, similar to gravy.
• Vadouvan: Vadouvan is the French interpretation of curry powder. It gets its name from vadagam, a South Indian blend of aromatics and spices. French chef Dominique Crenn uses vadouvan in her vegetarian beet tartare recipe to add a bright yellow color to her yogurt “yolk.”

“We distinguish our dishes by the spices in them. We say, ‘Oh, this is made with cumin and asafetida. This is made with black pepper and chilli pepper. This is made with green chillies and red chillies and cumin seeds.’ I always like to distinguish the different foods by their special names that we use in India.” — Madhur Jaffrey

Using the British definition, India is home to innumerable curries: meen moilee, or Kerala-style fish from the southwestern corner of India, is coconut-milk based, fragrant, and tart; chicken makhni, or butter chicken, hails from Punjab in the far north and is creamy and mild; kurma (a.k.a. korma), a dish from Southern India consists of mixed vegetables simmered in a cashew nut, green chili, and tomato sauce. You can also find curry on the menu at restaurants serving cuisine from Southeast Asia, Korea, the Caribbean, and Japan. Here are some of the most popular curry dishes:

1. 1. Chicken tikka masala: Chicken tikka masala is similar to Punjabi chicken makhni (butter chicken) but comes from 1960s Britain. Former British foreign secretary Robin Cook famously called chicken tikka masala a “true British national dish” in a 2001 speech about diversity and national identity.
2. 2. Vindaloo: Vindaloo is a Goan dish inspired by carne de vinha d’alhos, a Portuguese dish made with pork, wine, and garlic. During Portuguese colonization (1510–1987), Goan chefs substituted vinegar for wine, replaced pork with chicken, and incorporated red Kashmiri chilies and other spices to create vindaloo.
3. 3. Khao kaeng: Khao kaeng is a Thai dish of rice served with a thin stew. Westerners use curry to refer to various dishes from Thailand and other parts of Southeast Asia. While South Asian dishes often begin with a dried spice mix, Thai stews get their flavor from ground fresh aromatics like ginger, lemongrass, and chilies, known as khrueang kaeng or nam phrik kaeng (a.k.a. Thai curry paste). Some of the most famous variations include kaeng phet (red curry), khao soi, kaeng kari (yellow curry), and kaeng khiao wan (green curry).

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