Kedgeree

This grand pilaf is one of the many good things that came out of Anglo-Indian cookery and is an example of one of the first “fusion” dishes. The word comes from the Hindi khichri, a breakfast rice that contains cooked lentils and a lot of butter with fried onions on top. If you were rich in the fifteenth century, you fed it to your elephants as well.

Kedgeree made my first reputation as a cook when I was twelve. I cooked it for the family Sunday breakfast, as a change from ou