Curry

by Lizzie Collingham

dum pukht

  a technique of cooking where the pot is sealed with dough and then cooked on a bed of ashes with smouldering coals placed on the lid

  feni

  a potent spirit made from the stem of the cashew plant

  firman

  Mughal imperial directive (often to regulate trading privileges)

  fukujinzuke

  Japanese pickled vegetables, eaten with curry

  garam masala

  mixture of black spices such as black pepper, cinnamon and cloves

  ghee

  clarified butter (the favoured cooking medium in India)

  gobi

  cauliflower

  gochiso

  Japanese culinary laws of purity and perfection

  gram

  pulses

  gulab jaman

  sweets made from milk and coated in a rose-water syrup

  hookah

  Indian hubble-bubble pipe

  hookah-burdar

  hookah servant

  hurkarrah

  messenger

  idli

  light doughnut-like bread made from a batter of ground rice and lentils

  jaggery

  coarse brown sugar made from palm-sap

  jeera

  cumin

  jiyza

  a tax imposed by Muslim rulers on non-Muslims

  kacca

  foods usually prepared afresh each day, using water, and susceptible to pollution

  kava

  intoxicating Polynesian drink made from the root of the kava plant

  khansaman

  head servant or butler

  khichari

  dish of boiled rice and lentils

  khidmutgar

  waiter

  khir

  sweet milk and rice dish

  khud

  broken grains of rice

  khudkura

  huskings and particles of rice, humble or poor food

  laddu

  sweet made from chickpea flour and sugar

  lascar

  Indian sailor

  maidan

  parade ground

  masalchi

  spice grinder and sometimes in Anglo-Indian households a dishwasher

  maval

  cockscomb plant, the flower of which is used as a flavouring in Kashmir and which gives the food a bright red colour

  mofussil

  remote countryside or the provinces

  nanbai

  bazaar cook

  nautch girls

  dancing girls

  nimbu

  lime

  paan

  betel leaf and areca nut mixed with lime and chewed as a digestive

  pakka

  foods usually prepared using ghee or oil and less susceptible to pollution than kacca foods

  palanquin

  an enclosed litter for travelling in, carried by four to six bearers by poles slung across their shoulders

  pani

  water

  pukka

  Anglo-Indian for proper

  prasadum

  the leftovers of the gods

  qima

  minced meat

  rajasic

  foods thought to stimulate the passions and induce anger

  rakhi

  protection charm

  rasa

  tastes (pungent, acidic, salty, sweet, astringent and bitter)

  rasam

  broth

  ryot

  peasant

  sadhu

  Indian holy man

  sattvic

  foods thought to promote good health and moderate behaviour

  seer

  a measure of weight equivalent to about 1 kilogram

  sepoy

  Indian soldier

  shikar

  hunting and shooting

  syce

  groom

  toddy

  alcohol made from palm-sap

  tonjon

  open carriage, carried by four to six bearers on long poles

  tyre

  curds or yogurt

  zenana

  part of the house reserved for the women of the family

  Acknowledgements

  I began the research for this book while I was a Research Fellow at Jesus College, Cambridge. I would like to thank the Master and Fellows for providing me with an environment conducive to research and writing, and for the warm welcome which I receive whenever I return.

  I also spent a few months as a visiting fellow at the Research School of Social Sciences at the Australian National University, Canberra. I am grateful to my colleagues there (especially Barry Higman and Tim Rowse) for making my stay such a pleasurable and productive one.

  Many people (too numerous to mention by name) have taken the time to speak to me about Indian food or their lives in India; Natasha Eaton, Martin Jones, Peter Garnsey, Riho Isaka, Partha Mitter, Rana Mitter, Vijay Naidu, Ryoko Nakano, Kathy Prior, Michael Shapiro, Jo Sharma and Emma Spary provided me with useful references and information and Mike O’Brien read the manuscript with great patience and scrupulous care. I am extremely grateful to them all.

  I would like to thank the staff of the Centre for South Asian Studies, Cambridge; the Oriental and India Office at the British Library; Cambridge University Library; the National Library of Australia, Canberra; the Mass Observation Archive, Sussex University Library and the Imperial War Museum, London.

  I would also like to thank John Cornwell and my agent Clare Alexander who both encouraged me to write this book; Penelope Hoare, my editor; my sister, Sarah, for her enthusiastic enjoyment of my curries; the Gnanasundaram and Sivasubramanian families for introducing me to delicious Indian home cooking and Namita Panjabi for a helpful conversation and a delectable lunch at Veeraswamy’s.

  My absurdly itinerant lifestyle while researching and writing this book has put me in the debt of a great many generous friends: Fiona, Andrew, Alistair and Sarah Blake, Claire and Keith Brewster, Jan, Frank and Jack Collins, Vic and Pam Gatrell, Sophie Gilmartin, Geoff and Joan Harcourt, Francine and Jacky Imbert, Mike and Tricia O’Brien, Megan and Jeff Thompson, Jeremy Riley, Lionel and Deidre Ward and my late mum, Mary.

  Rebecca Earle collected titbits of information for me and provided constructive criticism each of the many times she read the manuscript; she, David, Gabriel and Isaac Mond, have provided me with a home whenever I needed one. I cannot thank them enough. Thomas Seidel, as usual, instigated many adventures in the name of research and kept my spirits up while writing.

  Bibliography

  Primary Sources

  Oriental and India Office Collections

  European Manuscripts

  Annie Winifred Brown, MSS.Eur.R138

  Abraham Caldecott Collection, MSS.Eur.D778

  Papers of Sir George Cunningham, MSS.Eur.D670

  Fitzroy Collection, MSS.Eur.E312

  Gwillim Papers, MSS.Eur.C240

  Lyall Collection, MSS.Eur.F132

  Macnabb Collection, MSS.Eur.F206

  Lady Minto’s Recipe Book, MSS.Eur.A79/2

  Pharmacopoeia, MSS.Eur.E120

  Frederick John Shore Collection, MSS.Eur.E307

  Spilsbury Collection, MSS.Eur.D909

  Tea Association Records, MSS.Eur.F174

  Tollinton Papers, MSS.Eur.D1197

  Pictures and Photographs Collection

  Bourne and Shepherd, Photo 703

  Edward Hilder Colebrook, Photo 469

  Robert Arthur Ellis, Photo 304

  W. W. Hooper, Photo 447

  Higginbothams, Photo 494

  M. Charles Preston, Photo 934

  Political and Judicial Department Papers

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  Warren Hastings Papers, Oude Accounts etc. 1777–1783, British Museum Additional 29,093

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  Mrs Viola Bayley, Microfilm Box 7, No.57

&
nbsp; Bourne Papers

  Champion Papers

  Dench Papers

  Hall Papers

  Holman Papers

  Maxwell Papers

  Stuart Papers, Microfilm Box 2 No. 17B

  Imperial War Museum, London

  Fus, H. Simons, ‘Army Cookery Notebook, 1944’, Misc 180 Item 2726

  Mass Observation Archive, Sussex University Library

  Mass Observation Winter Directive of 1982

  Royal Commonwealth Society Collection, University Library, Cambridge

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