Errol Anderson - Anglo-Indian Cookery--A Selection of Well-known Dishes

Thank you. Without her support and patience, I would have never been able to compile this book. The Anglo-Indian community is a distinct, small minority community originating in India. Anglo-Indian cuisine, dress, speech and religion all served to segregate Anglo-Indians from the native Indian population. Anglo-Indian cuisine is different from usual Indian recipes that you may have experienced. The Anglo-Indian cuisine developed over time where some English cuisine were enhanced by traditional Indian spices to give it a unique blend of culinary dishes which till date are prepared by Anglo-Indian families residing on all corners of the globe.

The fusion food that emerged became a staple food of the Anglo-Indian community. I emigrated from India to UK in 1989 leaving behind my parents. Few months after arriving here I felt home sick and most importantly I was missing the distinctive taste of Anglo-Indian home cooking. I struggled to comprehend with the common local cuisine when I have acquired taste of good Anglo-Indian food. At the time, although I enjoyed eating delicious food, I was novice to cooking. I started taking interest in cooking where I was helping out in the kitchen with basics like cooking rice and pepper water.

A year later I moved out to stay on my own and it is only then I realized that I cannot rely on my minimalistic cooking skills and local food which was too bland for my liking. In 1991 I went to India with the sole purpose of learning to cook especially Anglo-Indian Food. I had asked my mother to show me to cook most of my favorite dishes and I had also hired a professional cook to teach me some fine culinary skills which led me to cook my popular dish Butter Chicken I returned to the UK armed with knowledge of many good recipes and enhanced own cooking skills. It did not take me long before I started to show off my new found skills to my family and friends cooking for parties and functions. My parents arrived in UK in 1993. My mother has always been known for her good culinary skills with having experience of cooking dishes passed down from my dads mother who lived in Kolar Gold Fields (K.G.F), India and from my mothers mother who lived in Mangalore, India.

I still have an old tattered recipe book where my dad kept note of all the good recipes. Since the arrival of my mother here, my passion for cooking heightened which led me to believe that I should compile a book filled with recipes that have been passed down from generations, some from friends and relatives as well as including some of my own dishes developed over time. I would like to embrace the diversity of our food culture both past and present, emulating the fusion of great tasting Anglo-Indian recipes in this book. My aim is to share these well-known recipes with people who have the willingness to try Anglo-Indian dishes and for them to experience cooking simple and tasteful dishes. The recipes are illustrated in an easy to read format for you to follow. You will notice that there are many common Indian spices been used in these recipes and hopefully the ingredients are accessible to you wherever you reside.

In majority of my dishes I have mentioned the use of pressure cooker especially to cook meat dishes. Using a pressure cooker will minimize the cooking time and will also make the meat tender and succulent. If you do not own one, it is worth investing as it can be used for both vegetarian and non-vegetarian cooking. As an alternative, you would need a good quality heavy-bottom medium to large saucepan. Spices come in different forms, you can use them whole, ground, roasted, fried or mixed with yogurt to marinate meat and chicken. There are some fresh spices in the recipes like cinnamon, clove, green cardamom, where the spices need to be broiled, this can be obtained by placing the spices in a dry shallow saucepan and shaking the pan whilst it is broiling to stop them burning.

By roasting the spices, they are easier to grind to powder. Spices will change the flavour of the dishes producing unique tastes and textures. The quantities of spices mentioned in this book is a guide, you can increase or decrease the quantity to suit your taste, especially chilli powder, mixed spices and salt. In most recipes I have use ground spices, which are generally available in supermarkets or Indian grocers. For grinding spices you could use a dry blender, food processor or my popular choice grinding spices using a pestle and mortar which really keeps the fragrance and texture fresh. There are some of my recipes which requires the chicken to be made into tandoori pieces before being used to complete the dish.

A tandoori oven is usually used in restaurant. The intense heat inside a tandoori oven make the chicken pieces crispy on the outside and whilst remaining tender and succulent inside. Cooking chicken in a tandoori oven brings out the best texture and flavor. The nearest you can get to the result of tandoori finish is by cooking the chicken pieces in a very hot oven or grill. When baking the chicken in the oven allow the water that come out of the chicken to remain until fully dried up so that the chicken pieces remain moist and succulent, if not, they will become really dry. When cooking fries and curries, for best results the longer you cook over low heat, the better the taste of the food as it allows the spices to be absorbed.

My suggestion would be to follow the recipe to the core in terms of ingredients, measurements and methods in order to obtain the same results expected from these recipes. However, you are most welcome to experiment with these recipes, as only you know how you want your food to taste. Hopefully, the photographs of the dishes included in this book will give you some idea of the expected results to work towards. I hope that you will embrace my concept of sharing these recipes and join me in this journey of trying out all these wonderful recipes and bringing to your pallet these tasteful Anglo-Indian dishes. I would like to take this opportunity to thank my mother, my wife Mary, relatives and friends who have helped me to realize my dream of penning a cookery book. Happy Cooking!

In general you can get most of the ingredients from good Indian grocer or super markets.

Ajwain seeds Ajwain caraway or carom seeds are aromatic, less subtle in taste as well as slightly bitter and pungent. Black Pepper Round, black, hot flavoured seeds which can be used as whole or freshly ground, or as powder. Bay Leaves Dried leaves of the bay laurel tree, used in flavouring many dishes. You can substitute bay leaf for coriander leaves but will alter the flavour of the dish. Black Cardamoms Black skinned variety of cardamoms with strong fragrance used for flavouring curries and biryani. Chana Dhal It is a pale yellow colour lentils (chickpeas in half), which has a sweet nutty aroma.

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