Madras curry is a curry made with a sauce of onions and tomatoes, made spicy hot with chili pepper and a curry powder made from a mixture of other spices. The dish was invented in Anglo-Indian cuisine; the name is unknown in Indian cuisine.

Origins

Madras curry gets its name from the city of Madras (now Chennai) at the time of the British Raj; the name is not used in Indian cuisine. The name and the dish were invented in Anglo-Indian cuisine for a simplified spicy sauce made using curry powder, 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.

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