Nation of Curry Lovers

We are a nation addicted to Indian food. Our pedestrian palates perk up at the mere thought of brittle shards of poppadam loaded with fresh mango chutney, or flame-coloured tandoori meat wrapped in blistering naan bread.

“Whether you like a bhuna, a dopiaza or a balti, or whether like me you look at that menu and just panic and have the chicken tikka masala, we’ve all got our favourite curry and [Indian] restaurant,” said David Cameron in his message broadcast at last year’s British Curry Awards.

Indeed, from Southall to Glasgow there are no fewer than 10,000 “spice restaurants” to choose from, providing 100,000 jobs in a £3.2 billion industry. Although it’s facing competition from the likes of Thai, Mexican, Polish and Moroccan, Indian cuisine, along with Chinese, still dominates the ethnic food market in the UK.

This is partly to do with how embedded curry has become in Britain’s food culture. Since the late Nineties, various polls – not all by the Asian food industry – have rated chicken tikka masala above fish and chips as the nation’s favourite dish. We scoff 18 tonnes of the stuff a week, many of us blithely unaware that it’s an old Punjabi dish soaked in “gravy” to accommodate Anglo-Indian tastes.

Despite its popularity, many blokes’ relationship with curry falters beyond a late-night lager and vindaloo or a half-used jar of ready-made sauce in the fridge.

Which is not surprising given the “spicy” (nudge, nudge, wink, wink) bravado peddled by some media around Indian food. “Curry will make your sex life red hot” screamed a recent tabloid headline. The korma’s potent blend of coconut, garlic, chilli, ginger and almonds is said to improve sex drive in females, according to research carried out by the takeaway website just-eat.co.uk.

“Scorchio! Bollywood Burner is world’s hottest curry” is another typical headline. It followed the creation by Vivek Singh, chef at London’s Cinnamon Club, of a vindaloo so hot that diners were asked to sign a disclaimer before indulging in such spicy food.

“Men loved the early curry houses because they were the only places open to eat after an evening in the pub. It was an inexpensive, fun night out where friends shared food and competed on who is man enough to eat the hottest curry,” says Anjum Anand, star of BBC’s Indian Food Made Easy television series.

“But I hope we can move on from the Friday-night curry association as people realise that Indians themselves eat a whole range of regional Indian food daily and that it is food that really belongs at home.”

In her cooking Anand strives to simplify classics (Kashmiri lamb kebabs and even an Indian shepherd’s pie, for example) and flags up regional dishes such as Bengali pumpkin and chickpeas and delicate fish curries from Kerala in the south.

“By making it less fussy – a la Jamie - men will have a go at cooking for their mates. Success is a great driver, so one good meal should lead to more cooking,” says Anand.

Indeed, it’s easy to stock up on a fresh supply of the basic spices such as garam masala, panch phoran seeds, dried chillies and fenugreek and combine them with meat, fish and vegetables. The real beauty of cooking Indian food at home, apart from being able to modulate the spice factor of a dish, is using quality meat, such as free-range chicken and new season autumn lamb, from the butcher, or catch of the day from the fishmonger.

As well as the trend towards more “authentic” regional dishes, the experience of eating out is changing in more ways than just the decor. Discriminating consumers are demanding more healthy options on the menu - grilled, low-fat, ghee-zero, and the use of yoghurt instead of cream – and a better choice of wines and teas to match spicy Indian food.

At the elite end of the market, leading restaurateurs such as Vivek Singh and Cyrus Todiwala, of Café Spice Namaste, are employing techniques and ingredients from all over the world in their cooking. While Vineet Bhatia, the Michelin-starred chef at Rasoi in Chelsea, is carving out a niche for himself supplying sophisticated Indian food to glamorous locations in Mauritius and, most recently, the newly refurbished Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Geneva - a far cry from a balti in Wolverhampton.

“As we are exposed to more regional Indian food from our travels, supermarkets and television, then we will become more adventurous in our ordering of Indian meals,” says Anand. Who knows, perhaps even Mr Cameron will reconsider his order next time he goes for a curry