Madras curry is a

curry Curry is a dish with a sauce or gravy seasoned with spices, mainly derived from the interchange of Indian cuisine with European taste in food, starting with the Portuguese, followed by the Dutch and British, and then thoroughly internatio ...

made with a sauce of onions and tomatoes, made spicy hot with

chili pepper Chili peppers, also spelled chile or chilli ( ), are varieties of fruit#Berries, berry-fruit plants from the genus ''Capsicum'', which are members of the nightshade family Solanaceae, cultivated for their pungency. They are used as a spice to ...

and a

curry powder Curry powder is a spice mix for curry originating from the Indian subcontinent, adapted from but not to be confused with the native spice mix of garam masala. History As commercially available in Western markets, curry powder is comparable t ...

made from a mixture of other spices. The dish was invented in

Anglo-Indian cuisine Anglo-Indian cuisine is the cuisine that developed during the British Raj in India. The cuisine introduced dishes such as curry, chutney, kedgeree, mulligatawny and pish pash to English palates. Anglo-Indian cuisine was documented in detail ...

; the name is unknown in

Indian cuisine Indian cuisine consists of a variety of regional and traditional cuisines native to the Indian subcontinent. Given the diversity in soil, climate, culture, ethnic groups, and occupations, these cuisines vary substantially and use locally av ...

Origins

Madras curry gets its name from the city of Madras (now

Chennai Chennai, also known as Madras (List of renamed places in India#Tamil Nadu, its official name until 1996), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Tamil Nadu by population, largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and ...

) at the time of the

British Raj The British Raj ( ; from Hindustani language, Hindustani , 'reign', 'rule' or 'government') was the colonial rule of the British The Crown, Crown on the Indian subcontinent, * * lasting from 1858 to 1947. * * It is also called Crown rule ...

; the name is not used in

. The name and the dish were invented in

for a simplified spicy sauce made using

, tomatoes, and onions. The name denotes a generalised hot curry.

Variations

There are many variations on Madras curry. For example, the television chef James Martin makes his curry powder using black pepper, cinnamon, cloves, coriander, cumin, fennel seed, fenugreek, mustard seed, and turmeric, while his sauce contains fresh bay leaves, chilli pods, garlic, ginger, onion, tamarind, and tomato.

References

Sources

* {{cite book , last=Collingham , first=Lizzie , author-link=Lizzie Collingham , title=Curry: A Tale of Cooks and Conquerors , date=2006 , orig-year=2005 (

Chatto & Windus Chatto & Windus is an imprint of Penguin Random House that was formerly an independent book publishing company founded in London in 1855 by John Camden Hotten. Following Hotten's death, the firm would reorganize under the names of his busines ...

) , publisher=

Vintage Books Vintage Books is a trade paperback publishing imprint of Penguin Random House originally established by Alfred A. Knopf in 1954. The company was acquired by Random House in April 1960, and a British division was set up in 1990. After Random Ho ...

, location=London , isbn=978-0-099-43786-4 Indian curries Tamil cuisine Spicy foods