KEY POINTS:
Not very long ago, a pretty, well-educated girl in Bombay agreed to meet a nice Indian boy from England, with a view to a matrimonial arrangement. He flew over to meet her family and everybody, including her, agreed this guy was the ticket. The next thing you know, there she was in his family home far from her beautiful, intoxicating India.
His was a hard-working family with a successful Indian spice mix and chutney business called Pataks. Pretty soon, it became obvious that the girl, who had a degree in catering and food, needed to be using her brains, so she started working with the family company and took over product development.
Pataks curry mixes were complex, delicious and highly authentic but there was always going to be the problem of how to conserve the freshness.
The girl hit upon the revolutionary method of preserving the curry mixes and sauces in oil in jars.
This had never been done before and it was this technique developed by the Pathaks, which gave the family a huge edge on the competition. Both the boy, Kirit Pathak, and the girl, Meena, now head a huge Indian food empire selling globally, an OBE each and three children who are all in the business, which just goes to show that too many cooks do not spoil the broth.
A good spice blend has the magical ability to give you confidence and encourage you to think you are a world-class curry wallah because you can't actually get it wrong. There's nothing shameful about not grinding your own choice of spices out on the back step - the trick is in buying a blend from someone who knows what they are doing. Make no mistake about it - understanding Indian spices and cooking is extremely complex and requires wide-ranging knowledge.
Meena has this in her blood but she also works with a contemporary eye to produce light, healthy and easy meals. The proof is in her latest cookbook Meena Pathak Celebrates Indian Cooking.
I would invite those misguided individuals who think they make a great curry to stop inflicting themselves on long-suffering friends. I've had it up to here with insipid, floppy chicken masala. Insipid doesn't mean not hot and spicy - it means no understanding of flavour balance. Not all Indian food is hot, in fact most Indian food cooked at home is mild with hot chutneys on the side.
One day a few years ago I was floating along the canals of Kerala, south India, investigating the spice plantations and unbelievable food markets of that enchanting province. It was 40C, the Indians were smiling and relaxed and I looked like a corpse someone had put a wig on. My guide for that trip was Meena who wore a different beautiful outfit every hour (I'm slightly making that up), perfect makeup and enough diamonds to get us out of trouble should any pirates board. That's why she's called the curry queen.
- Extra, HoS
