Curry

During the British rule in India, the British used to eat large quantities of curry and rice for breakfast, lunch and dinner. However, curry is a very European concept. No one in India refers to his or her own food as a curry. It was a notion that the British imposed on Indian culture and food. Indians refer to dishes by their specific names. Each dish has its own unique name. When Indian servants brought the British this food, they would use these given names. The British lumped all these dishes together under the broad heading of curry. It was too difficult for them to remember all these names so they came up with curry. But the British did not think of the word curry themselves, it was the Portuguese who actually discovered it.
The British discovered the term curry from the Portuguese. The Portuguese had a settlement in South India and they came across a word karil, which was used by the South Indians. The word karil was used to describe spices and also sometimes sautéed vegetables and meat. According to the Portuguese, the word karil meant Indian food that had been cooked with butter, with the pulp of Indian nuts and all other spices and condiments. The British took the word karil and made it in to curry, which they attributed to any spicy dish with thick gravy from any part of India.
Although the British were aware of some regional differences in food, they missed the subtle differences that made that region’s cuisine so important. They separated the curry into three broad categories, namely, Bengal curry, Madras curry and Bombay curry. Sometimes they would also include Ceylon (Sri Lanka) curry and Melay (Malayan) curry. The British would be rather oblivious to understated variations. They would zero in on those rather distinguishing characteristics and apply them to every curry that could fall under that classification. These very broad categories would leave out other important factors and lump everything together. Therefore, small dissimilarities that may seem trivial to outsiders are very important to Indians. The British were also blind to the abundant variations of flavors. The Indians can be partially blamed for this as they started adjusting their own recipes to suit British tastes. An example of this would be the Hindustani Korma. The original korma is a very spicy and one of the richest Indian dishes. The resulting British korma that had been altered contained half the amount of yogurt and ghee (clarified butter), spices like clove, cardamom and the cream had been completely removed from the recipe. Thus producing a nonspecific korma with ginger, coriander and peppercorns, this suited the British taste perfectly.
The term curry was not just used to describe Indian stews or sauces but it became known as a dish that was created exclusively for the British in India. Some British described curry as a mixture of cardamoms, cloves, ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, coriander, Cayenne pepper, onions, garlic and turmeric, all ground together. Thus Thus was invented the recipe for all future curries for the British.
Curry powder has probably been one of the greatest British inventions. They brought this idea to Britain and it quickly spread all over. Once the British officials would come back to England they would miss the spicy Indian cuisine. There are many recipe books dating back to the 1900’s. British chefs who had included many recipes about Indian cuisine write these books. The factor that must be noted is that the Indian dishes were always altered to suit a foreign tongue. The British could not handle the spicy food as it upset their stomach. They were used to bland roast meat with mashed potatoes and vegetables. Thus a new flavor profile appealed to them and they wanted to keep eating that way even in England.