Episode 2 Rick Stein's India

There's something about a curry that's all pervading.

Just the thought of it ignites a longing deep inside us.

It is the only food I can think of where the sense of smell works

so wonderfully well with memory and imagination.

At the mere mention of the word, I sense turmeric,

coriander, garlic and cumin.

No other food I know gives the taste buds such a roller-coaster ride.

For nearly three months,

I travelled all over India, tasting curries

and watching cooks, trying to find out their secrets,

because curry is full of complexities

and it's taken very seriously here and I wanted to show that there's

more to curry than three pints of lager and a prawn vindaloo.

First-class curry, Ricky.

That's a mind-blasting curry, Ricky.

Well, I was sitting on the plane this morning reading my notes

coming into Bombay, Mumbai,

and I was really interested to see that 500 years ago there was

nothing here but a series of fishing communities on a string of islands.

The Portuguese came along and they saw what a fabulous harbour

this was, so they built a series of forts to protect it

from other greedy European nations.

Well, in time, the British took over

and they reclaimed a lot of land from the sea

and they built a railway down the coast and Bombay flourished

and it became the most successful

and opulent city in the subcontinent - the Gateway to India.

I'm pretty glad I'm not a historian, actually,

doing this programme,

because I could be a bit flippant about the Gateway to India

because I can't help feeling it sort of looks like something

on a tin of curry powder, you know, because it's so imposing.

Of course, it was supposed to be imposing

because it was a bit like the British Raj's front door -

you sort of arrived here perhaps off a P&O steamer

and quite ironically and quite sort of romantically, I think,

it was the gateway where the last British troops marched

through ceremonially just after independence in 1947.

It was built to commemorate the landing of King George V

and Queen Mary when they arrived here in 1911

and it became the proscenium arch where the great and the good,

bedecked in their ostrich feathers

and gold braid, entered the rich, colourful stage which is India.

And talking of rich, colourful stages,

it doesn't get much better than this.

It almost has a biblical feel to it, Sassoon Docks -

the main fish market in Bombay.

Well, I must say, I'm always at my happiest in a fish market,

my most exuberant.

My wife Sarah says I am a fish cos I love my fish so much.

I don't know why it is, but fish and boats and open air scenes like this

at dawn are what really, really makes me excited.

I mean, look at it! I think in a sense we're all

excited by sights like this because it sort of takes us

back to a time when things were simpler,

when people got on with each other much more closely.

I mean, the great thing I always find in scenes like this in India

is that you never feel people have got it in for you

cos they're too busy doing their own thing, doing their own work.

I think in the West somehow because everything's tidy and clean,

we've just lost that sense of kinship.

PEOPLE CHATTER

Well, I've been able to talk to a few people

about what the fish sells for here

and some of the really big fish like tuna, sailfish, swordfish...

I've just seen some fish sold for 38,000 for export, but also there's

lots of little fish which people make a small living out of.

I was talking to the driver that brought us here.

He said his dad used to come here with a bucket

and just buy lots of little fish and take them

out to the neighbourhood around here and he'd make about 300 rupees,

which is nothing but was enough to keep his family in food.

Also, what I've noticed... and I hate waste, OK?

Being a chef, I hate waste - there is no waste here.

Nothing gets thrown away.

Even the little fish that fall out of boxes, all the stuff that's

thrown onto the quay cos it is too small to sell, is picked

up by children and taken and sold.

Fantastic.

I've finally found it.

This is one of the most important fish in the whole series.

Doesn't look much but it's called bombil and it's what we used to know

in the UK as Bombay duck, but can I find it any more? No way.

Apparently, it's salted and dried, but it's not hygienic,

they tell me in the EEC, but I suspect it's because it smells

and people don't like the smell, but this IS my childhood.

We always used to have Bombay duck sprinkled on curries.

I'm determined to find it.

The fishing boats here are all the same design, a stocky triangle

of thick teak with a broad stern - clearly a design to be trusted.

I found it a little disconcerting to see the swastika

emblazoned on the side of wheelhouses.

It's strange how over here, it means a sign of good fortune,

whereas in Europe, it became the most sinister

symbol in the whole of the Western world.

Well, as the Australians would say,

I'm like a kid in a lolly shop here, but it's not just really

about the fish here, it's about the curries that's really exciting me.

Because being the most populous city in the whole of India, Bombay

has fish curries from everywhere - Mangalore, Maharashtra,

Madras, Kerala, Goa - you name it,

and I can't wait to get out there and try them all.

So, the overall effect is that this place inspires you to cook.

My little house at the edge of the lagoon is a perfect place

to cook a curry resonant of that vibrant fish market.

So I'm just slicing up my squid here and just cutting it into rings.

It's been prepared apart from that with my trusty Indian blue knife

which cost me 40 rupees. Not a lot of money.

Now I'm going to make a masala.

Into my masala grinder I'm going to put some coriander seeds,

cumin seeds, some black mustard seeds and then some garlic

and red chilli and some turmeric and finally some fenugreek.

Turn it on, whiz it up.

And there we go, only takes seconds.

Now I'm just going to turn that out into...on top of my coconut,

just to remind me to put both into my trusty karahi or chatti,

with quite a good quantity

of just ordinary vegetable oil in there.

I'm going to fry off some sliced onions.

Just stir those around a little.

Then I've got some garlic and chilli...

green chilli and sliced ginger.

There we go.

Just stir that around to cook it and next,

while it's still very hot, I add my squid.

OK, there we go, in goes my masala now

and the ground, grated coconut.

I just think it could do with a little bit more colour

and probably thinking about the amount of chilli in there,

a bit more oomph, so I'm just going to add some chilli powder,

about a British teaspoonful, I should think.

And now add some tomato... There we go. ..just chopped up.

In this hot country, tomatoes all taste deliciously sweet

so that's looking good.

Just going to add a little bit of water

because I want a bit of sauce happening here.

I always keep a water bottle near me whenever I'm cooking Indian dishes.

You never know when you might need it.

Quite often just if the spices are burning a bit or you

the want a little bit more liquid for a sauce.

Now I'm going to add a very important

ingredient in Mangalorean cooking - tamarind.

Lovely, sour note, but sometimes I find them a little bit too sour,

so I'm a bit apt to put a little bit of sugar in there as well.

I'm using jaggery, which is cane sugar. It's very, very unrefined.

Tastes wonderful. It tastes like fudge.

I'm just going to add now a little bit of coriander.

You know, I love curries like this,

because it's not all about long, thoughtful cooking, Indian curries -

sometimes you can do it in minutes like this one

and very good it is too.

I had this in a little restaurant...

Well, it wasn't really a restaurant, it was just a gap in the wall where

they served really good fish dishes. This took barely 10 minutes to make.

It's cheap, no-fuss cooking and I love it.

On my trail for the elusive Bombay duck,

it looks like I've missed the boat, because all that's left

on these drying racks is a fish called a snakefish,

inferior to the famous bombil that I saw earlier in the market.

But I was invited to go to a fisherman's house in Versova

and offered a taste of the famous, much-loved Bombay duck, an offer

I couldn't turn down because I hadn't tasted it since my early 20s.

I think it's fair to point out that the reason it's hard to get

in Bombay, this dried, salted Bombay duck, is that restaurant owners

can't stand it cos of the smell in their restaurants.

You can appreciate that.

I mean, back in Padstow, I think I'd be a little bit

worried about sending hot Bombay duck out like this.

It is a bit strong, but what I like is fried,

let go cold and then crumbled over a curry.

Well, I've just been watching and they're going to bring it now.

I have to say it's a vegetarian day for them,

so they're not going to try it.

They've just done especially for me

and also they normally do it with a masala,

but I just wanted to try it plain, just like a snack, because it's

more like what I remember having sprinkled over my curry.

It's very good. I mean, I don't know why people get

so nervous about things that are a bit smelly.

This is wonderfully salty and savoury,

be great with a glass of beer.

Lovely. Thank you very much.

RICK LAUGHS

I think we all know in the West that Bombay or Mumbai is

really on the move.

There's serious money here and there are

so many Indians who, having left their mother country to find fortune

elsewhere, are coming back because the economy here is so buoyant.

I think that this place has always, since the days of the Arabs

and the Portuguese, been very cosmopolitan.

-So this is Britannia?

-This is Britannia.

'I met a food blogger, Purva Mehra, who took me

'to a well-established restaurant. It's a Parsi restaurant.

'Now, the Parsis escaped Muslim persecution in Iran

'nearly 1,000 years ago and came to the western coast of India.

'The British loved them because they spoke English and I think the Parsis

'really liked the British

'because this restaurant is called Britannia.'

I notice you've got a picture of the Queen up there on the wall.

-You want a picture?

-No, no, no.

-Do you remember the days of the British Raj?

-Yes, I remember.

How was it?

I was, at that time, a young man, about 25 years old

when the British left.

If you're going back

to London,

please give all my love to Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth.

Well, I've met her a couple of times.

Please tell her we want her back and we will all be very happy again.

-Thank you very much.

-I'll do my best.

-Thank you. We're going to have...

-Can we have the...?

-We're going to have the berry pulao.

-The berry pulao?

-Yes, please.

You want to have with chicken or with mutton?

-We'd like... Chicken is good for you?

-Yes, fine.

-The chicken berry pulao, please.

-One chicken berry pulao.

-One chicken berry pulao. Thank you very much.

-OK, thank you very much.

'So Purva ordered berry pulao, one of the most popular dishes here

'and it's made with rice and barberries.

'They are deliciously sour and gleam like rubies and they come from Iran.

'The whole dish is made with chicken and fried onions,

'lots of fried onions.'

Purva, I can't actually tell what's in here

-and they won't give us a recipe.

-They won't.

It's a family recipe. It's actually developed by Mr Kohinoor's wife.

No chilli, is there?

No...maybe just a hint of it

but the whole idea is the fragrance because a pulao has

to be aromatic, otherwise it fails as a pulao.

In Australia, I got hold of dried sour fruit,

mostly cherries, from Iran, I think it's a speciality.

-It is a speciality.

-So who are the Parsis, then?

They actually fled the Muslim invasion.

They did not want to be a conquered people,

so they came and they settled in Gujarat.

They brought with them

dishes like chicken dhansak or dhansak in general.

So that's where dhansak came from?

Dhansak came from the Parsis and they were excellent tradesmen.

-They still run the top businesses in the country.

-Well, I mean, I love it.

It's a little bit sort of moth-eaten

but presumably they're keeping it the way it always was.

Yes, Britannia, for instance, was set up in 1923

and Mr Boman Kohinoor who owns the place is now 91.

-That's who we've just been talking to?

-Yes.

-Fabulous.

-Yes, he's managed the place for 75 years now.

-Good Lord.

-The Queen might watch this.

-He is, he is a loyalist...

-to his last days.

-Well, let's tuck in.

-Thank you.

I have a strong feeling that Indians, not all,

but certainly the ones I've met, regard the British with affection.

Of course, nobody knows who I am over here and nor should they,

but when I say I'm from the UK, their faces light up.

It's as simple as that and this is just one of the legacies

we left behind.

This has become as much part of the country as Royal Enfield motorbikes

and Austin Cambridge cars - so British and yet so Indian.

I was just wondering how many games of cricket

there are going on here, about 100, I'd imagine,

and just looking round, I don't really want to get

clocked by a ball but it's only a tennis ball, but I was just

thinking if we were back in the UK, how many games would be allowed?

Well, maybe two per field, so you'd probably get four games here.

If you wanted five, you'd have to come back on Thursday.

No wonder the Indians are so good at cricket.

I need something a bit faster than that.

I never was any good at it.

Kipling, in his poem to Bombay, talks of the people here who traffic

up and down but cling to the city's hem

as a child to their mother's gown.

Maybe people have always come here to the water's edge to get

away from the dynamo of the city.

And this is where lovers go to hold hands but never kiss.

It's not allowed.

I'm told by my guide Krishna that most young couples have nowhere

to go in this very expensive, overpopulated city,

except here to gaze out over the sea,

away from the noise of clogged streets

and their parents' tiny apartment.

Here, they can talk about their dreams until the sun goes down

and beyond, but they can't kiss - it's not allowed.

Whilst on the subject of the love,

this is what the people who come from here absolutely adore.

It's called pav bhaji.

It is, I'm told by Purva, my foodie guide,

the quintessential Bombay dish.

It's made with loads of butter, chopped onions -

and the onions are always red in India,

unless anyone knows better -

then cumin seeds, mashed potatoes,

loads of freshly chopped tomatoes and marrowfat peas.

To me, the indulgence of eating a cracking pav bhaji

is similar to a great hamburger.

It's all about the combination, in this case, the vegetables,

the freshly baked bread and loads of butter.

Next, pav bhaji masala mix - chilli and coriander powder,

salt and lots of chopped coriander.

It smells lovely.

It's a funny thing to say,

but it's sort of like a very exotic bubble and squeak.

The masala is the most crucial part,

and as you can see, it's burning our eyes.

So you can imagine how potent it is.

But that's where all the flavour is.

It seems to have an awful lot of butter in at the beginning.

-A lot of butter.

-A lot of butter.

I mean, there was like a pound, in old measurement, to start with!

Precisely. Butter is indispensable to the dish. It's what lends it...

It's greasy, that sort of fat taste, unapologetic.

If you don't have butter, you can't have pav bhaji.

You can't call it pav bhaji without the butter.

Well, I can't wait to try it.

It's dishes like this that are the most memorable.

Well, if you come to Bombay and you don't eat pav bhaji,

-you've missed out.

-Well, I haven't eaten it yet.

-You're about to.

I'm glad you're doing this

because this is quintessential Bombay street food.

So what do we do now?

-All right, you have to get your hands dirty, Rick.

-Fine.

You break the bread and you scoop up the butter.

Break a piece, or you can ladle it on there.

-That's fine.

-What would you do? You do it.

-I'll show you how it's done.

-This is so exciting.

-We break a piece...

-Oh, I see.

-And we just scoop it up, butter and all.

And voila!

-Wow!

-What do you think?

This is...superb!

I mean, this is the sort of, like... Who cares about the diet?

-I'm going to have some fun!

-Precisely!

-Unbelievably lovely!

-You can taste the butter, can't you?

-Mmm!

It's all butter.

I got this dish, which is chicken with apricots, from Bombay,

Mumbai, whichever you prefer.

I went to the same restaurant twice, because it was that good,

and this is one of the dishes I had.

I asked the manager there where it came from and he said he thought

it was from Gujarat, but that originally it was a Parsi dish.

But, like so much in Bombay, there's 20 million-plus population there

and most of them come from other parts of India.

So, for me, it's a Bombay dish.

So first I'm going to put into my hot chatti or karahi, some oil.

And now I'm going to temper some spices.

And I really enjoy doing this now.

It's something I've learnt in India.

You put whole spices in hot oil

and it just infuses the hot oil with the flavour of those spices.

First of all, some peppercorns and now some cloves,

some bruised cardamom, so that means the seeds are popping out.

A couple of chillies...

I should have taken the stalk off that one. It doesn't matter.

And now just break up a bit of cinnamon.

Stir those around for about 30 seconds. Lovely smell!

Now I'm just going to add some onions. Not a lot.

And just brown those.

So, there we go.

Time now for some roughly chopped garlic and ginger.

Just let that brown a little bit.

I love the smell of garlic and ginger.

Right, that's browning quite nicely,

so now I'm going to add some tomatoes.

And the recipe says to cook it down until it's syrupy, so I'll

just let those tomatoes come down nicely,

just giving off all their moisture.

And now I'm going to add some salt.

Excuse me if I add a bit more than you think is healthy.

A teaspoon and a half. A generous teaspoon and a half.

And now to add my dry spices.

First of all some turmeric, probably only half a teaspoon.

And next, some chilli...

Probably I'm getting a bit keen on my chilli.

I think I'd have written this recipe was just one teaspoon before,

but now I've made it two.

Now some ground coriander, a teaspoon.

And some ground cumin, a teaspoon.

And some garam masala. Let's say a teaspoon and a half.

I love my garam masala. Let's stir that around.

It's getting quite hot now.

I don't want those powdered spices to burn at all,

so I'm just going to add a little bit of water, just to take...

HE COUGHS

Sorry! Too much chilli!

There we go. That's very nice. And now I'm going to add the chicken.

Cook that a little bit, not brown it,

but just take the pink colour off it.

Now I'm putting jaggery in, which is very, very raw cane sugar.

Very nice. I just love eating it on its own. So in goes that.

But here are the dried apricots, lots of them.

And that gives the dish a lovely sweetness,

contrasted with the next ingredient, which is vinegar.

Now, this is toddy vinegar, which is

actually made from the sap of the coconut flower.

You can use white wine vinegar, of course.

A couple of tablespoons of that.

So it's that sort of sweet and sourness

this is the real beguilingness of this dish.

And finally, we need to add, at this stage in the cooking,

some water, just to barely cover that.

Just stir that in. And that is now going to cook for about 30 minutes.

First covered, to really cook the chicken, and then, for

the last 5-10 minutes, I'll uncover it to reduce it a little bit.

I can't find my bleeding lid! Oh, there it is, where I left it.

See you later.

While that's bubbling away, I talked about chilli powder earlier,

so you've got to see this.

This, to me, sums up everything that's so ingenious about the Indians.

I call this the spice pistons. It sounds like a band!

If you get your spice ground in a large factory,

they are doing hundreds and hundreds of kilos at a time.

They grind it really fast and it gets hot and it starts to burn

and that actually burns off part of the flavour.

The real joy of this machine is it stays cool

and you get all the fragrance of the chilli.

Thank you very much!

Well, that's what two kilos of whole chillies looks like as powder.

Smells... Smells absolutely fruity and fragrant.

And it tastes... I mean, don't use spice powder.

Try and grind your own. Even if you're using a coffee grinder,

you'll get something like this taste. There is so much more to it.

I would actually say that one of the main things

I'm learning in India is go for fresh spices all the time.

It's just transforms every curry you're ever going to make.

So, after 30 minutes or so, that's perfect.

The right consistency - rich and velvety.

And notice I'm leaving the whole spices in.

That's what they do here, as well as leave the chicken on the bone.

More flavour, they say.

That looks so nice. Lovely colour, this one.

I'm just going to sprinkle on this some coriander.

But now these chips, which is quite unusual in India, but it's so nice.

Just put them on the top like that, and when you eat your curry

and you got these crisp, crunchy matchstick potatoes - fab!

So, we're going to your favourite restaurant?

This is my new friend, Krishna,

who is also our translator and guide.

-Yeah, like this. Like that.

-OK, right.

And he assures me

that feeding the cow will bring me an abundance of good luck.

Ah, got the tongue. That's good luck!

We're going to his favourite restaurant in the whole of Bombay.

I don't think it's even got a name,

but the food is supposed to be really good.

-Are you feeling nice, Rick?

-Feeling wonderful!

Well, this is just a little bit frustrating.

No disrespect to Krishna, because we asked him where his favourite

restaurant was in all of Bombay, and he's chosen this tiny restaurant.

So small, that only the cameraman can get in.

Basically, I've asked for fish masala

and, as far as I can work out, they've taken a whole lot of spices,

whole chilli, coriander, cumin, coconut, and dry-fried them,

then ground them, then put that in a pan with water

and then they've added wet ingredients - ginger, garlic,

tamarind, tomatoes and lots of green chillies,

and boiled that together, and now they are ready to put

the fish in, which I think is going to be shark.

He says it's just the best, and I don't doubt it.

But I'm slightly irritated with David, the director,

because he likes making things difficult for me.

I feel a bit like Keith Floyd in a way.

Remember those programmes where he used to complain about

the director making him go up in balloons and all this sort of thing? Same guy.

The portions are not what I'd call gargantuan.

It's mostly rice flavoured with this spicy, hot tamarind sauce

and just the merest amount of fish. Well, that's how it is here.

-What do you think about it? You got...

-Tamarind seed!

Tamarind seed, yeah.

It's lovely!

I mean, it's incredibly economical, for a start,

because you've got not a lot of fish, but you don't need it.

Lots of rice, and the masala is exquisite, it tastes really fresh.

I'm sorry I'm so bad at eating with my fingers,

but it's just devilish difficult to get used to.

-I know, you have to learn.

-Could you pass me a napkin?

I just want to have some of that rice.

Special napkin, designed for the canteen.

-You finished?

-No, no, no. My hands get so dirty.

I just want to try some of this, which is rice water?

Rice water, yeah. They don't give you water, they give you rice water.

-It's very nice.

-You have all the energy of the rice here.

You don't miss it. Like, another four, five hours, you know?

I always feel it when you burp, you know?

That rice flavour comes out and it is so nice. I really enjoy this.

This is how my mum cooks at home.

So if somebody asks me, "Which is your favourite food?"

I say, "The fish curry which my mum cooks."

So, for me, this is kind of my home.

I think that's really what eating out is all about.

I suddenly realised this is why I've never really run

a Michelin-starred restaurant myself,

because I can't stand all that, you know - we call it ... really -

all that over-the-topness.

-All I really want...

-Yeah.

The director is now going to say, "What about your prices, Rick?"

Yeah!

When I knew I was coming to Bombay,

I naturally wanted to visit the slums.

The vast, sprawling,

corrugated shantytown I'd seen in Slumdog Millionaire.

And I'm not alone, because many visitors, holidaymakers

and businesspeople, make a beeline here.

Not out of any morbid curiosity,

more as a genuine interest in how so many people get along,

run a business, raise a family and educate their kids.

It's a marvel.

-So, yeah, a lot of industry is happening here.

-Really?

-Recycling, you know...

-Because it looks a bit shocking.

That's true, but I'll show you something.

Good Lord! Unbelievable! That...

-I mean, the contrast! What are they doing?

-That's embroidery.

-They make the logos?

-T-shirts?

-Yeah, they can be anything.

If you want, you can make your own logo.

So really, it's a question of attitude.

You can either say this is a frightful slum...or it's...

you know, it's testimony to people's ingenuity

-to do things...

-Yeah, yeah.

For me, it's kind of possibilities.

It's a shame in a way that it's called a slum, isn't it?

-Maybe it's because there's not any other name.

-Yeah!

-To say.

So a lot of work going on here, a lot of people live here,

a lot of migrant community.

-Just have a look here, all making something.

-Some cooking.

-Please come.

-Excuse me.

-Please come see.

-I feel a bit like we're imposing.

-That is beautiful!

-That's chapatti. You can see, no oil.

-It's healthy!

-Does he mind me touching it?

-No, no, it's OK.

-I'll buy it off him anyway.

-If you want you can eat it.

-I'd love to eat it.

-We believe in sharing the food, so...

-The best chapatti I've ever eaten!

-He's asking, do you want some vegetables?

-I'd love some vegetables.

What's he got in there then?

Green chilli, salt. You like it?

-I love it!

-Finish it, eat.

-I will!

-You taste it.

-Really good!

All it was was courgettes, green chillies, onions, garlic and salt.

It felt strange walking down these alleyways

because I never knew what was behind each door we passed.

Krishna wanted me to see

a blast furnace right in the middle of this township.

Imagine you're a health and safety officer - where would you start?

You see they're melting the aluminium there.

-It can't be very healthy for them.

-That's true.

You can see the working conditions, right?

It's a small place and they don't even wear proper gloves and masks.

But if you tell them, "Why can't you wear gloves and a mask?"

They say, "It's hot, and we don't want it. It's OK, no problem."

It's kind of... They are very proud of their work.

Just as well! Can we get out of here? I'm beginning to choke.

Krishna tells me that people like lawyers and doctors live here

because they choose to.

Bombay is so expensive

and the alternative is to move miles away and commute.

So they prefer to stay here in the centre of things.

Noticing, walking around,

and of course lots of other people have said this - you can think of a

slum as being depressing or you can think of it as being ingenious...

Once you're inside, you see it is really organised.

But if you see the...the... infrastructure, it is really poor.

For example, there are open drainages,

electricity wires hanging everywhere, the working condition is poor.

But despite of that, you see the sense of community, huge,

and that people are doing something,

there's some kind of positive stuff happening.

One of my literary heroes,

who incidentally was born in Bombay, is Rudyard Kipling.

If this slum had been in existence in his time,

I know he would have come here

because he said in this piece about Bombay, "The smell of oil

"and spices and puffs of incense and sweat and darkness and dirt

"and lust and cruelty.

"But above all, things wonderful and fascinatingly innumerable."

There are certain places you go to that you're not absolutely sure

where you are.

Well, I know I'm in India,

but I feel I've been transported somewhere,

maybe on the French Riviera.

And I'm warming to the idea of a nice cold glass of rose

and maybe a bouillabaisse.

MUSIC: "La Marseillaise" by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle

This is the town of Pondicherry,

three hours' drive along the East Coast Road south of Madras,

now known as Chennai.

It used to be the jewel in France's Indian crown.

The churches twinkle in the sunshine.

They look as though they were freshly built, almost edible.

The roads are wide

and the street signs acknowledge three centuries of French rule.

This little corner on the romantic Coromandel Coast will for ever be

La Belle France.

The language remains

and so do the smart kepis worn by the local policemen.

And so does the patisserie.

'This could be anywhere in France and, tradition aside,

'it's such a great idea.

'All these tourists that come here from Europe

'dreaming of coffee, freshly-baked bread and apricot jam,

'they can't go wrong.'

Historically, France's grip on the subcontinent

wasn't so assured as the British.

It quite simply came down to British sea power.

Britain had the bigger navy, the stronger navy, and took over India.

Otherwise, I suspect places like Kolkata and Mumbai would have French architecture -

wide boulevards, lovely, graceful, white buildings...

Not so austere as the British ones.

And, of course, I'd be sitting having a coffee and a croissant anywhere

and probably looking forward to steak frites

and a glass of red wine for dinner.

They can't make enough baguettes here and they're authentic.

The name Baker Street reeks of French humour, it's very obvious.

The manager is Ezhilmathi.

I had your baguettes for my breakfast this morning

and I could have been back in Paris. They were that good.

We try to make it, each and every time,

exactly proper French baguettes.

So you've lived in France, then?

-I lived, I've been 25 years in France.

-25 years?

Ten years in production, 15 years in sales.

-Your cafe downstairs is filled with French people.

-Yeah.

-But do Indians like this bread too?

-Surely, surely.

There are now, each and every time, there are lot of French...Indian people

from Bangalore and...Chennai, many local people, Pondicherry people,

when they try these baguettes and now, many Indian people,

they love our French baguettes.

'I wanted to taste a fusion of French and Tamil cuisine.

'They call it Creole here.'

A friend of mine suggested this place -

quite a posh hotel that prides itself in this fusion of taste.

And so, the speciality on the menu du jour is...

BOTH: Sauteed lemon pickle prawn.

Aran and Ashok - Ashok's the one in the chef's whites -

show me how it's done.

After sauteing ginger, garlic and shallots,

they add some sliced courgettes.

And then, some plumptious prawns,

which I imagine came off the fishing boat

only hours ago on a beach nearby.

Next, a pinch of pickled lemons,

an influence that spreads all the way form North Africa,

where the French dominated.

And then, some garam masala.

And now, the dried, almost Provencal herbs - rosemary and thyme.

Finished off with fresh basil, coriander and some seasoning.

This looks really good. I mean, I can see the French ingredients.

There you got the thyme and the rosemary and the olive oil.

-Yes, sir.

-But then, you put garam masala in as well, which is...

Because this is supposed to be Creole cuisine.

But Creole, you know, Pondicherry Creole,

which means when the French came to India,

they brought their own ingredients, but it did not last for long.

As a result, they started using our ingredients also.

But this is still recognisably a French sort of dish,

albeit with local flavours.

-Yes, that's right, sir.

-Perfect fusion.

-Yes, sir.

-I'm very keen to try these shallots.

-Please.

-I mean, I can taste the olive oil.

-Yes.

-And taste the garam masala.

-Yes.

-It's a very nice dish.

-It's a real fusion, actually.

-It really is.

I think it's fair to say that Gandhi's peaceful mission

to boycott all things British in the early 1900s

would have gone down extremely well with the French in Pondicherry.

Maybe that's why the people here erected this massive statue in his honour.

Gandhi actually came

from an upper-middle class family in Gujarat,

he was an intellectual.

And before his famous passive resistance,

where he inspired the independence movement,

he actually went to the UK to study law

and, as a strict vegetarian,

couldn't really find anything to eat.

Apart from what he had at his landlady's,

which was boiled cabbage, potatoes, bread, cake and jam and cups of tea.

He did finally discover

that he could cook, from Indian shops in London, for himself, vegetarian food,

but the only British dish he really liked was porridge.

There was a time when even HE had his doubts about vegetarianism,

simply because all of India's powerful invaders,

the Moguls, the Portuguese, the Arabs

and, of course, the British,

all ate lots of meat.

So, therefore, the young Mahatma thought, "Hang on a tick,

"if all the Indians could eat meat,

"they'd be strong enough to kick the British out!"

Apparently, he tried a bit of roast goat

and found it a dreadful experience and never again to be repeated.

All thoughts in that area were soon forgotten.

In honour of Gandhi's passion for all things veggie,

back at my house on the edge of the lagoon,

I'm going to cook my favourite vegetable curry,

a curry I could eat for breakfast every day.

I'm now going to make aloo dum, or, in this case, actually,

I'm going to call it aloo mattar,

because it contains peas as well as potatoes.

But aloo dum is probably the most common vegetable dish

all over India.

You get it everywhere

and I think it's a bit like chips with everything,

you have aloo dum with everything.

So, first of all, I saute some parboiled potatoes in mustard oil.

You don't need any longer than five minutes.

Then, a sprinkle of turmeric to give it a nice, golden glow.

Stir that in and put to one side.

Add a bit more oil, mustard oil,

and now, some Indian bay leaves,

just not worth using European bay leaves.

If you haven't got these, don't bother about it.

I often think they've got a slight flavour of cinnamon,

so if you haven't got them,

it might be an idea just to put an inch or so of cinnamon in here.

Just a tiny bit of asafoetida,

which is very pungent,

but, as the Indians say, if it's not there, you notice it.

And to complement the asafoetida and enhance the dish even further,

I add freshly-made paste of onion, garlic and ginger.

And now, some powders.

Now, I say powders, but I have actually ground these up.

Well, not me, I got them done, actually, it wasn't actually me.

Teaspoon of chilli powder.

A teaspoon of coriander

and a teaspoon of cumin powdered.

And now, quite an unusual ingredient,

which is called amchoor,

which is actually dried mango.

And not too much, about half a teaspoon, it's very concentrated.

So now, a little bit more turmeric.

And then, some salt.

Now, quite a lot of tomato.

I've just bought tomatoes and whizzed them up in a food processor.

They're so good here that you don't really need to buy tinned tomatoes.

You probably couldn't buy them anyway.

Next, some sliced green chillies.

I like a bit of heat in my food, so I've kept the seeds in.

And I splash more water to keep it moist.

And now, the potatoes.

That is looking so nice

and may I suggest that next time you go down to your local Indian,

if you don't do this already,

make sure you order aloo dum,

which is just the potatoes,

or aloo mattar, which is with the peas.

You'll be so glad you did.

And finally, I'm going to put in some garam masala. About a teaspoon.

Very often in Indian dishes you end the dish with some garam masala.

But you might start it with garam masala as well.

But the point of it going in at the end is it just gives all that spiciness a real lift.

Finish off with a sprinkle of freshly chopped coriander.

And by the way, that amchoor gives it a real sour zest.

There it is. What do you think of that?

I met up with a cookery writer, Lourdes Louis,

who comes from an eclectic family of Tamil, French and Vietnamese.

To her, Pondicherry is a place like no other.

So what would it have been like here in the colonial times, in the '40s, '50s?

We had a lot of French people, European French, living here.

And, of course, the local Pondicherrians, who had French nationality.

And we had also the schooling in French.

-Wow!

-And many in Pondicherry, many Pondicherrians, speak French at home.

-Really?

-French is like our mother tongue.

Lourdes lives on the outskirts of the French Quarter.

And she's offered to cook me

a typical dish from Pondicherry, chicken vindaye.

She starts off with oil.

And it's sunflower oil she's using. Then a bay leaf.

They do taste different, these Indian bay leaves.

Cinnamon, the merest hint.

Just one clove, and a little bit of star anise.

Next, onion.

-So you're starting with some whole spices?

-Yes.

The whole spices - don't pound, powder them. Leave it as such.

And I notice you've got star anise in there,

which is quite rare in India, isn't it?

But in Pondicherry cuisine, we have a lot of star anise.

But very little because of its medicinal value. You know?

We value a lot, the balance of the food, not only for the taste,

but also for the medicinal value.

And most of the food we cook is based on ayurveda.

Ayurveda is, er... Ayur is life, veda is science. Science of life.

And we believe very much that we are what we eat, which is true.

-You are a chef. You know it very well.

-Yes, yeah.

-Try.

Mind, mind, it's very hot.

That's beautiful. There's a really sort of plumptiousness,

to use English, about it. And it's sweet, thoroughly cooked.

And I can even - you only put a tiny bit of star anise in there, but I can taste it.

-You can taste it. Very subtle. Very, very subtle.

-Lovely.

-And it's not overpowering.

-No.

This is garlic with cumin and a vee bit of fenugreek.

-A vee bit?

-A little bit.

-A vee bit, I see!

I love the word vee bit. I really like that word.

-I shall use it from now on. It just means a little pinch.

-Yes.

-Good.

Chilli powder. Turmeric powder.

Stir it a bit. Be very careful not to burn the spices.

And now the tomato.

Now we have to cover it and allow the tomato to cook.

You know why we use the spices, it's just to, you know,

we believe in India that the meat, or fish, have a kind of smell.

It disturbs the palate that is being used to vegetarian food.

Really? So is there a word for that?

We call in the south, cauchee. Smelly.

The meat smell and the fish smell.

In the same way the Chinese put ginger with fish, I think.

Exactly. Exactly.

Once the tomatoes have cooked right down,

Lourdes adds the chicken pieces and white wine vinegar,

the ingredient that gives this dish its name, vindaye.

This dish is called vindaye.

It's a deformation of the French dish, vin d'ail.

They have stuck it together, called it vindaye.

-So, this is unique to Pondicherry, is it?

-Very typical.

-Nowhere else you'll get it.

-Actually, I do remember in Goa, vindaloo.

Mm. Nothing to do with this. Nothing to do with this.

-Vindaloo is nothing to do with this.

-Yeah, but they do use vinegar there.

They do use vinegar, but not white vinegar.

They use a kind of vinegar

made out of the cashew nut fruit. And...sorry.

-You don't like it?

-No. Sorry. The smell is very yucky.

-It spoils the curry, in fact.

-Fine.

I bet if I went to Goa and said, "Do you know they use vinegar

-"over in Pondicherry..."

-Tell them, tell them.

It's different vinegar, different taste, you know? Now we'll taste.

Tell me, Craig. Taste and tell me.

I'll give you a different spoon, sorry.

It's Rick.

'After about 15 minutes, the dish is ready to serve.

'I must say, it smells really good,

'and I'm rather looking forward to tasting it.'

Bon appetit, Rick.

Merci!

-That's very nice.

-Like it?

-Mmm.

-Not too hot for you?

-No, not too hot.

-It's very...

-Subtle?

-Subtle, yeah. Mild.

-Yes.

-I love the tomato in it.

Personally, of course, I love the vinegar in it,

because I like that sort of tartness in it, tanginess.

Using curry in the generic sense of being Indian food generally, I'm

looking for my top ten, and I think this might well be in that top ten.

Thank you, thank you.

'Talking of top dishes, I have to tell you about this place.

'Actually, I stopped here on my way down to Pondicherry from Chennai.

'I was told about an ancient 8th century

'temple in the town of Mamallapuram.

'But always being a bit peckish,

'I headed straight to the little restaurants on the beach instead.'

'It's funny, but when I see a sign like this roughly

'stencilled on a wall in such delightful Indian colours,

'I just know that the food is going to be really good.'

'And if you're in Southern India,

'then fish curry should be the top of your list.

'The folks here at the Seashore Garden restaurant make,

'I think, one of the very best.'

'The ingredients are fresh as can be, and the cooking time is minimal.

'What seems like an enormous amount of chilli powder is fried

'with shallots, green chillies, curry leaves and garlic.

'And here's the star ingredient, a beautiful snapper,

'firm and absolutely fresh,

'caught just a few miles off this very beach on the Coromandel Coast.

'To finish the masala sauce, in goes the tomato paste,

'and what makes this curry undeniably South Indian - tamarind.

'A few more whole green chillies for added heat and it's time,

'time to taste.'

Like this.

Like this. Yeah.

Just watching him put some of the sauce on his hand then tasting it.

It's cos the Hindus just will not taste anything.

It's all about hygiene.

You put a spoon in something and you taste it, it's unhygienic.

-Am I right?

-Yes.

-I'm right.

I actually tried, when I was back in the UK, one of these what

I like to call Madras fish curries, rather than Chennai fish curries.

It was made exactly like that.

Seriously, it's a very good fish curry.

It's the best fish curry I've ever tasted.

Want to get it back home in the restaurant,

and I know it's going to be superb.

'This, to me, is a seafood chef's nirvana,

'sitting feet away from the water's edge in balmy sunshine

'enjoying a mind-blowing fish curry cooked in hardly any time at all.

'This place is a great find, and life can't possibly get any better.

'Can it?'

That is just simply perfect.

I mean, the fish is so fresh, you can taste the sea.

You know, when it's dead fresh fish like that, oh, heaven.

And the tamarind just gives it such a zest, and the curry leaves,

and of course, the green chillies in it. It is superb.

-So, would you put that on your list of best curries?

-Would I?

I mean, seriously, for me, and I think I'm a bit biased,

I have to say, but fish curry like this...

..could be the one. I know.

I've got to be thinking of this cos some of those chicken

ones are really good. We haven't had any beef ones yet.

We've got to go to Kerala where there's lots of Christians

that have beef, and the goat, the mutton curry's fantastic.

But fish, a big piece of snapper like this, oh! Heaven.

'I know there are other curries out there that maybe could

'possibly eclipse that moment,

'but what a joy of a journey to find out if that's true.'

BUS HORN HONKS

We've been travelling now for three weeks,

and I have to find the perfect curry.

The crew are trying to tempt me with things like egg and chips, pork

chops, green beans, roast beef, all those things that remind me of home,

but no, I shall continue in this quest to find the perfect curry.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

INDIAN MAN'S VOICE: That's a mind-blasting curry, Ricky.