In his book ‘Bills Basics’ (which I thoroughly recommend), Bill Granger says that he stopped eating meat when he was in India, because the choice of vegetable dishes was so vast. Having recently returned from India, just in time to beat the worst of the Covid-19 madness, I know exactly what he means.
Since 2010 I’ve kept a food diary – a record of the meals I’ve made and the things we’ve eaten virtually every day since then. What would be the purpose of doing such a thing, do I hear you ask? Read on, and note the stylish segue to the recipe for kedgeree.
If you’ve been following along closely and paying attention you’ve probably figured out I like a curry, and more specifically Indian curries and Indian style food in general. In these days of globalisation, world commodity markets and modern efficient transport I find it easy to take for granted the spices I use every day, but it wasn’t always the case.
I was passing the Indian grocery store and noticed they had an advertisement on the window for Butter Chicken Nuggets, which got me thinking along the lines of flavoured nuggets. Some years ago we were staying in Sydney and went to see Shakespeare’s ‘The Tempest’ at the Opera House. Being in a large cosmopolitan city we thought rather than rush our dinner we would get something on the way home, as there would be something open for sure. Big assumption as it turned out – choices were pretty much limited to Hungry Jacks and the like. Not wishing to spoil the evening we waited until we got back to the hotel and ordered Indian from room service, notably Butter Chicken. It was absolutely beautiful, but without going into detail lets just say ‘The Tempest’ turned out to be an apt description of the after-effects.
