Homemade curries in the 70s.

[Johnnyxgen]

Hi. I am trying to recreate the curry my mum made in the 70s for my now old and daft m&d.. I'm struggling with what she served as accompaniment..
So far I've got. Crisps. Sliced banana with dessicated coconut, major grey mango chutney and sliced tomato&onion and sliced cucumber. Did you put vinegar on the cucumber? Was raita even heard of in 70s Britain? Have I missed anything. Any help gratefully achieved. Jc.

I did cookery O-level (early 80s) and for the practical you were given a random choice of three set pieces.
I can't remember what they all were, but mine included a loaf of bread. I only got a B because I forgot to add the salt 😱
Amazing what a difference that makes.

One of my friends was given the option that included a main course. Impressively, despite not knowing what it was, she found a recipe for "Indian Cheese Curry" and made it.
We didn't know about paneer in those days, so she just thought "Well, of course curry's Indian", rather than spotting it should be "Indian cheese", and made the traditional British yellow curry sauce with lumps of Cheddar in it.
Oh dear...

Hard boiled gg curry, iirc, was quite nice.

I make this for the kids regularly and they love 'grandma curry' but don't do the bits with it. It was from the Dairy Book of Cookery
If your mum had that book and you want a recipe I'll dm you

My post was supposed to quote IbizaToTheNorfolkBroads re the hard boiled eggs, but MN seems a bit wonky again: it said, when I previewed, that the preview might not show the quote due to a glitch but the quote would appear when posted.
I don't know why I'm even surprised.

MIL grew up in Asia (ex-pat) and was making her own versions of curries in the 1970s.
Her sides would be sliced banana, a bowl of dessicated coconut, chunks of cucumber in natural yogurt, finely diced onion and tomato and mango chutney.
There would definitely be some dried fruit in the sauce - raisins I presume.

Definitely no raita here in the 70s but I remember all the rest!

I’m grateful my mum can’t eat spicy food and I was spared these horrors!

I found a recipe with the sultanas and apple 😂

I still can't get over the fact that Vesta beef curry is vegetarian and halal.

Chopped apple and raisins and onions and sharwoods curry powder in with the mince, desiccated coconut and sliced bananas on the table to addl yourself.
the plain rice was served on the plate in a circle, like a halo with a space in the middle for the curry to go. I might make that again for old times sake.

I've got several old cookbooks, must go on a hunt for raison curry.

Apples and sultanas was a must! I absolutely LOVED that 1970s curry though and I've recently discovered that Waitrose do a 'Fruity chicken curry' ready meal and it tastes exactly like my Mum's curry and is DELICIOUS!

"Chicken breast pieces in a cream and coconut sauce with apple, pineapple and raisins.'

It's honestly gorgeous!

Placemarking to remind me to post a photo of the Klatchian curry later ...

My Mum did all the same sides! She did the cucumber sliced thinly in natural yogurt.

My mum did chicken in the homepride curry can with sliced banana, raisins and hard boiled sliced eggs
They still sell these cans in waitrose

Grandfather used to make this in 1950s, had spent time in India and missed it. Yes to all the fruit but no messing about with your own spices please. Curry powder only, oh, and a couple of dried chillies if you dare.

My mum used to put apple chutney (which had raisins in it) in hers. Also, it was made with left over cold roast meat, and I'm not sure it you got a hard boiled egg in it the first day, or whether left over sauce was served with egg the day after and thats what I remember

God yeah, the sliced bananas on top of the curry. So odd. Was that ever a thing in actual Indian cooking?

I really want a Vesta curry with banana slices now!

Sultanas in the curry with peanuts and sliced banana on top. The sauce, of you could call it that, was made with curry powder. No extras, not even garlic, added.

I have been trying to replicate the very specific taste of my mother’s chicken fried rice from the 1960s. I can’t seem to get it right and she can’t remember how she made it.

Great programme started on BBC 2 last night. 'Back in Time' they've covered most things but this programme focuses on families that came over from Pakistan in the 50s and trying to make curries using British ingredients. The son of the family made curry using baked beans, Branston pickle and some other bits I cant remember. Was a great insight into life in the 50s and 60s. Its on again tonight starting from the 70s x

Those curries aren't based on Indian cooking, they're based on West Indian cooking (Caribbean). The bananas are supposed to be plantain, I think, but that wasn't easily available in the UK in the 1970s.

Oh I loved back in time for tea, I didn't know they'd done a new series!

Yes, absolutely it is, in some areas.

Although the kind of recipes talked about here, that were being recreated in the 70's, were curries of the Raj era, anglo-indian food, in which local food was catered to white British tastes.

Gosh I loved these curries at my Granny’s! You defo need the diced egg, salted peanuts and Bombay mix too to go with cucumber, bananas, tomato, coconut and poppadoms.

Reminds me of my lovely late Dad.

He would soften onion and peeled chopped apple in ghee, then add garam masala, curry powder and I presume stock or water, then blend it.

I think he usually added leftover roast chicken to his, along with sultanas of course!

He also used to fry poppadoms, which I've started doing recently...so much nicer than the ready cooked ones.

Don't forget to refer to the mango chutney as "chango mutney".