Granny's 'Devil Chicken'

"You've got to find Granny's 'Devil Chicken'... Your Uncle Phillip would eat so much of it, he'd make himself sick!" - Craig William Beeley (my Father)

So far I have tempted you with stories about my heritage in relation to food, given you some insight in to the dishes that have withstood time and carried on being cooked throughout the generations, and introduced you to my late Granny Beeley; but of all the things worth mentioning to you about my Granny and eastern cooking, it is notably her 'Devil Chicken':

Granny's 'Devil Chicken' is one of those mysterious dishes that's bragged about, to the extent that you you can't help but be cynical and assume that the day you eventually do taste this amazing food, it will be an anticlimax from everything you had previously heard about it. Through out this assignment, whenever I've intermittently interviewed me Father about his memories of Granny's cooking he always raves about this dish; as far as he can tell me it concerns slowly cooking a chicken marinated in some sort of spiced mango glaze, and she'd serve it with mashed potato and green beans.
The recipe for this legendary dish has been something of a fickle obsession of mine, whilst I carelessly dismiss it whenever my Father brings it up in conversation, I secretly daydream about the ingredients and harbour a desire to try it, much like in Mapp and Lucia (1935) where Elizabeth Mapp is determined get Lucia's recipe for 'Lobster á la Riseholme’ but legitimately she can't. So, with Google at hand, I spent a good few hours searching this dish only to come across a recipe for 'Devil's Chutney', which is a simple condiment made of: onions, sugar, salt, sugar, and vinegar, this is commonly served as an accompaniment to coconut rice (so I've read). This research proved to be exactly what I had initially said to you about the anticlimax of some legendary dishes -
I told my Father about the 'Devil's Chutney' recipe and that I couldn't find a recipe for mango chicken, or a devil chicken, or chickens smothered in chutney, or any other description "...oh maybe that's it then..." He said. I have previously mentioned how my Father's memories of Granny's cooking are somewhat doubtful accounts, this possibly being the most disappointing one of all. I contacted my Uncle in an attempt to find out more, but alas all he could tell me was that "it was very good" and that he remembered the taste of "sweet chilli and mangoes".

Why is this story relevant I hear you say, if not at least mildly entertaining? This story serves as an example of the connection we make between food and memory; over time we cling to the thought of food as opposed to the reality of what it is and without a reciept of ingredients we can only ponder what we taste  - in this case, because 'Devil's Chicken' has never been cooked by anyone but Granny and no one can find the elusive recipe, my Father and Uncle have clung to their initial memories of it and made it out to be the Holy Grail of chicken dishes instead of seeing it for some simple chicken, in a marinade of something involving ketchup. Quite ironically, if you type "memory and food" in to Google search engine a number of links and scholarly articles are listed promoting foods that are supposed to improve your memory, which can be seen if you click on the link below. (Maybe my Father and Uncle should try a few of them!)

https://www.google.co.uk/#hl=en&sclient=psy-ab&q=memory+and+food&oq=memory+and+food&gs_l=hp.3..0j0i22i30l3.44459.47461.5.47627.15.12.0.3.3.0.233.1749.0j9j2.11.0...0.0...1c.1.8.psy-ab.S5SUk7vLqKE&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_cp.r_qf.&bvm=bv.44770516,bs.1,d.d2k&fp=4224c9abb9e60957&biw=1366&bih=643

Madhur Jaffery

The Indian actress and food writer hailed as the instigator of introducing the Western world to Indian cuisine:

May I begin by telling you my initial memories of this woman: like the majority of food written about in literature Madhur Jaffery's first appearance in my life was as a softly spoken TV personality who my father insisted I watch, saying "Granny used to cook that" in regular intervals; so when I came across her cookbook Eastern Vegetarian Cooking (1983) amongst various other Asian cookbooks that belonged to my Granny, I knew at once that this was the book with which to centre my assignment on. Like Jaffery, my Granny was born in India and, despite doing little cooking herself as a young girl, grew up practising and valuing the culinary skills and knowledge in  being able to cook rich and aromatic dishes, and pass them on to other generations like my mother and myself.
The acknowledgments and introduction to several of her books draw on her experiences of food, and although they differ in their uses of ingredients, the tone and format of her writing remains consistant throughout. Jaffery reiterates the link between food, literature and memory as she goes on to tell you how she accumulated the recipes within the book and reveal the secrets of producing a multitude of different dishes from mere potatoes and aubergines.

Now regarded by many food writers as the number one authority on Indian food, it is rather ironic that her career did not start out as such - growing up as a child in India Jaffery barely knew anything about cooking and it wasn't until she moved to London that she learnt to cook some dishes reminiscent of her mother's cooking in her late teens. Following her award-winning performance in Shakespeare Wallah (1965) she became known as "the actress who could cook" and was snapped up by the BBC to present a show on Indian cooking; the 1960s was where her career really took off. Not long after flattering reviews about her and her cooking started to emerge had she been recognised by the New York Times and recieved her first book contract which produced An Invitation to Indian Cooking (1973).
Jaffery's prestige spans across all forms of media as well as literature: she is the notable author of over fifteen books on Indian, Asian and vegetarian cuisine, she has appeared in over twenty films, opened restaurants in New York, and has developed a line of of commercial cooking sauces to name just a few.
Below are a selection of some of her popular cookbooks and a link to her current website as well as Eastern Vegetarian Cooking:

Madhur Jaffery's Curry Nation