Curry Night

Earlier this month I was delighted to listen to Madhur Jaffrey’s ‘An Invitation to Indian Cooking’ dramatised in five bite-sized (!) instalments on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour. I so enjoyed hearing her stories even though I discovered Madhur Jaffrey much later than 1973 when her book and its ground-breaking recipes first took the world by storm. Several of my friends regularly cook with all the fragrance and fire of Indian spices, but I’m still a nervous little scatterer into any of my home-cooked dishes. Yet pre-Covid, and living so close to Southall with all its wonderful restaurants, a Friday night curry up there with friends was a convenient jaunt. It’s hard to imagine that it is only since the 1970s and 80s that Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi restaurants have been producing great regional cooking across the UK. I read that when hundreds of lorry drivers were stranded in those Brexit queues at Dover pre-Christmas, it was kindly British Sikh charities who fed them their choice of curry and rice. And top of the nation’s favourite ready meals as we struggle through lockdown are Chicken Tikka Masala, Chicken Jalfrezi and Lamb Rogan Josh.  Thank you Madhur!