Let the seeds be of the finest quality. Dry them well, pound, and sift them separately through a lawn sieve, then weigh, and mix them in the above proportions. This is an exceedingly agreeable and aromatic powder, when all the ingredients are perfectly fresh and good, but the preparing is rather a troublesome process. Mr. Arnott recommends that when it is considered so, a “high-caste” chemist should be applied to for it.
MR. ARNOTT’S CURRIE.
“Take the heart of a cabbage, and nothing but the heart, that is to say, pull away all the outside leaves until it is about the size of an egg; chop it fine, add to it a couple of apples sliced thin, the juice of one lemon, half a teaspoonful of black pepper, with one large tablespoonful of my currie-powder, and mix the whole well together. Now take six onions that have been chopped fine and fried brown, a garlic head, the size of a nutmeg, also minced fine, two ounces of fresh butter, two tablespoonsful of flour, and one pint of strong mutton or beef gravy; and when these articles are boiling, add the former ingredients, and let the whole be well stewed up together: if not hot enough, add cayenne pepper. Next put in a fowl that has been roasted and nicely cut up; or a rabbit; or some lean chops of pork or mutton; or a lobster, or the remains of yesterday’s calf’s head; or anything else you may fancy; and you will have an excellent currie, fit for kings to partake of.
“Well! now for the rice! It should be put into water which should be frequently changed, and should remain in for half an hour at least; this both clears and soaks it. Have your saucepan full of water (the larger the better), and when it boils rapidly, throw the rice into it: it will be done in fifteen minutes. Strain it into a dish, wipe the saucepan dry, return the drained rice into it, and put it over a gentle fire for a few minutes, with a cloth over it: every grain will be separate. When served, do not cover the dish.” Obs.—We have already given testimony to the excellence of Mr. Arnott’s currie-powder, but we think the currie itself will be found somewhat too acid for English taste in general, and the proportion of onion and garlic by one half too much for any but well seasoned Anglo-Indian palates. After having tried his method of boiling the rice, we still give the preference to that of Chapter [I.], page [36].
A BENGAL CURRIE.
Slice and fry three large onions in two ounces of butter, and lift them out of the pan when done. Put into a stewpan three other large onions and a small clove of garlic which have been pounded together, and smoothly mixed with a dessertspoonful of the best pale turmeric, a teaspoonful of powdered ginger, one of salt, and one of cayenne pepper; add to these the butter in which the onions were fried, and half a cupful of good gravy; let them stew for about ten minutes, taking care that they shall not burn. Next, stir to them the fried onions and half a pint more of gravy; add a pound and a half of mutton, or of any other meat, free from bone and fat, and simmer it gently for an hour, or more should it not then be perfectly tender. Fried onions, 3 large; butter, 2 oz.; onions pounded, 3 large; garlic, 1 clove; turmeric, 1 dessertspoonful; powdered ginger, salt, cayenne, each 1 teaspoonful; gravy, 1/2 cupful: 10 minutes. Gravy 1/2 pint; meat, 1-1/2 lb.: 1 hour or more.
A DRY CURRIE.
Skin and cut down a fowl into small joints, or a couple of pounds of mutton, free from fat and bone, into very small thick cutlets; rub them with as much currie-powder, mixed with a teaspoonful of flour and one of salt, as can be made to adhere to them: this will be from two to three tablespoonsful. Dissolve a good slice of butter in a deep, well-tinned stewpan or saucepan, and shake it over a brisk fire for four or five minutes, or until it begins to take colour; then put in the meat, and brown it well and equally, without allowing a morsel to be scorched. The pan should be shaken vigorously every minute or two, and the meat turned in it frequently. When this is done, lift it out and throw into the stewpan two or three large onions finely minced, and four or five eschalots when these last are liked; add a morsel of butter if needful, and fry them until they begin to soften; then add a quarter of a pint of gravy, broth, or boiling water, and a large acid apple, or two moderate-sized ones, of a good boiling kind, with the hearts of two or three lettuces, or of one hard cabbage, shred quite small (tomatas or cucumbers freed from their seeds can be substituted for these when in season). Stew the whole slowly until it resembles a thick pulp, and add to it any additional liquid that may be required, should it become too dry; put in the meat, and simmer the whole very softly until this is done, which will be in from three quarters of an hour to an hour.
Prawns, shrimps, or the flesh of boiled lobsters may be slowly heated through, and served in this currie sauce with good effect.