Anglo-Indian cuisine

Anglo-Indian cuisineis thecuisinethat developed during theBritish Rajin India.The cuisine introduced dishes such ascurry,chutney,kedgeree,mulligatawnyand pish pash to English palates.
Anglo-Indian cuisine was documented in detail by the English colonelArthur Robert Kenney-Herbert, writing as "Wyvern" in 1885 to advise theBritish Raj'smemsahibswhat to instruct their Indian cooks to make.Many of its usages are described in the "wonderful"1886 Anglo-Indian dictionary,Hobson-Jobson.More recently, the cuisine has been analysed by Jennifer Brennan in 1990 and David Burton in 1993.
During theBritish rule in India, cooks began adapting Indian dishes for British palates and creating Anglo-Indian cuisine, with dishes such askedgeree(1790)andmulligatawny soup(1791).The first Indian restaurant in England, theHindoostane Coffee House, opened in 1809in London; as described inThe Epicure's Almanackin 1815, "All the dishes were dressed with curry powder, rice, Cayenne, and the best spices of Arabia. A room was set apart for smoking hookahs with oriental herbs".Indian food was cooked at home from a similar date as cookbooks of the time, including the 1758 edition ofHannah Glasse'sThe Art of Cookery, attest.
TheBritish East India Companyarrived in India in 1600,developing into a large and established organisation.By 1760, men were returning home from India with money and a taste for Indian food.In 1784, a listing in theMorning Heraldand Daily Advertiser promoted ready-mix curry powder to be used in Indian-style dishes.While no dish called "curry" existed in India in the 18th and 19th centuries, Anglo-Indians likely coined the term, derived from the Tamil word "kari" meaning a spiced sauce poured over rice, to denote any Indian dish.Storytelling may have allowed family members at home to learn about Indian food.
Many cookbooks including Indian-style dishes were written and published by British women in the late 18th century,such asHannah Glasse's 1758 bookThe Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy, which included the recipe "To make a Currey the Indian Way".
As Indian cuisine grew in popularity in Britain, the desire for authentic Indian delicacies grew. In March 1811, theHindoostane Coffee Houseopened inPortman Squareoffering Indian ambience and curries as well ashookahsmoking rooms.The founder, Sake Dean Mohomed, stated that  the ingredients for the curries as well as the herbs for smoking were authentically Indian.
Well-known Anglo-Indian dishes include chutneys,saltedbeef tongue,kedgeree,ball curry, fishrissoles, andmulligatawny soup.Chutney, one of the few Indian dishes that has had a lasting influence onEnglish cuisineaccording to theOxford Companion to Food,is a cooked and sweetened condiment of fruit, nuts or vegetables. It borrows from a tradition of jam making where an equal amount of sour fruit and refined sugar reacts with thepectinin the fruit such as sour apples or rhubarb, the sour note being provided by vinegar.Major Grey's Chutneyis typical.
Pish pash was defined byHobson-Jobsonas "a slop of rice-soup with small pieces of meat in it, much used in the Anglo-Indian nursery". The term was first recorded byAugustus Prinsepin the mid 19th century.The name comes from the Persianpash-pash, frompashidan, to break.A version of the dish is given inThe Cookery Book of Lady Clark of Tillypronieof 1909.
Some early restaurants in England, such as the Hindoostane Coffee House on George Street,London, which opened in 1810, served Anglo-Indian food.
Many Indian restaurants, however, have reverted to the standard mix-and-match Indian dishes that are better known to the British public.