Mulligatawny soup

Anglo-Indian spiced chicken and lentil soup: the Victorian adaptation of Tamil rasam

Origin: Madras Presidency, British India

From the journey of Tomato.

Mulligatawny is one of the most documented cases of colonial culinary transformation; and one of the most honest about its origins, since its name is simply the Tamil words milagu (pepper) and thanni (water) mispronounced. British colonial officers in the Madras Presidency encountered rasam: the thin, intensely aromatic pepper-tomato broth of Tamil cuisine; and found it too austere for their taste. Their cooks, known as 'boy cooks' or 'kitchen servants', adapted it to suit British palates: thickened with lentils or rice, enriched with coconut milk or cream, given curry powder (itself a British simplification of complex South Indian spice blends), and often loaded with chicken or lamb. The result appears in the first Anglo-Indian cookbooks of the 1790s and became a staple of the Victorian table, served in every colonial club from Bombay to Singapore, immortalised in Seinfeld, and still made in Britain today, entirely disconnected from its Tamil origins.

Ingredients

Main

  • 2 chicken thighs, bone-in
  • 150 g red lentils, rinsed
  • 2 ripe tomatoes, chopped
  • 1 onion, diced
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced
  • 2 cm fresh ginger, grated
  • 1 large carrot, diced
  • 1 apple, peeled and diced
  • 1 litre chicken stock
  • 200 ml coconut milk
  • 2 tbsp butter or ghee
  • 1 tbsp mango chutney
  • salt and black pepper

Spices

  • 2 tbsp mild curry powder
  • 0.5 tsp ground cumin
  • 0.5 tsp turmeric

To serve

  • cooked basmati rice, to serve

Method

  1. Melt butter in a large pot over medium heat. Fry onion for 8 minutes until golden. Add garlic, ginger, carrot, and apple, cook 3 minutes more.
  2. Add curry powder, cumin, and turmeric. Stir for 1 minute to bloom the spices.
  3. Add the chicken thighs, tomatoes, red lentils, and chicken stock. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a gentle simmer. Cook for 30 minutes until the chicken is cooked through and the lentils have dissolved.
  4. Remove the chicken thighs. Shred the meat and discard the bones. Use a stick blender to partially blend the soup; leave some texture rather than making it completely smooth.
  5. Return the shredded chicken to the pot. Stir in the coconut milk and mango chutney. Season with salt and pepper. Reheat gently without boiling.
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