Obs.—An ounce or two of grated cocoa-nut, simmered in the gravy for half an hour or more, then strained and well pressed from it, is always an excellent addition. The pipe maccaroni, well curried, is extremely good: the sauce for both kinds should be made with rich gravy, especially when the onion is omitted. A few drops of eschalot-vinegar can be added to it when the flavour is liked.
CURRIED EGGS.
Boil six or eight fresh eggs quite hard, as for salad, and put them aside until they are cold. Mix well together from two to three ounces of good butter, and from three to four dessertspoonsful of currie-powder; shake them in a stewpan or thick saucepan, over a clear but moderate fire for some minutes, then throw in a couple of mild onions finely minced, and fry them gently until they are tolerably soft: pour to them, by degrees, from half to three quarters of a pint of broth or gravy, and stew them slowly until they are reduced to pulp; mix smoothly a small cup of thick cream with two teaspoonsful of wheaten or of rice-flour, stir them to the currie, and simmer the whole until the raw taste of the thickening is gone. Cut the eggs into half inch slices, heat them quite through in the sauce without boiling them, and serve them as hot as possible.
CURRIED SWEETBREADS.
Wash and soak them as usual, then throw them into boiling water with a little salt in it, and a whole onion, and let them simmer for ten minutes; or, if at hand, substitute weak veal broth for the water. Lift them out, place them on a drainer, and leave them until they are perfectly cold; then cut them into half-inch slices, and either flour and fry them lightly in butter, or put them, without this, into as much curried gravy as will just cover them; stew them in it very gently, from twenty to thirty minutes; add as much lemon-juice or chili vinegar as will acidulate the sauce agreeably,[[97]] and serve the currie very hot. As we have already stated in two or three previous receipts, an ounce or more of sweet freshly-grated cocoa-nut, stewed tender in the gravy, and strained from it, before the sweetbreads are added, will give a peculiarly pleasant flavour to all curries.
[97]. We find that a small portion of Indian pickled mango, or of its liquor, is an agreeable addition to a currie as well as to mullagatawny soup.
Blanched 10 minutes; sliced (fried or not); stewed 20 to 30 minutes.
CURRIED OYSTERS.
“Let a hundred of large sea-oysters be opened into a basin without losing one drop of their liquor. Put a lump of fresh butter into a good-sized saucepan, and when it boils, add a large onion, cut into thin slices, and let it fry in the uncovered stewpan until it is of a rich brown: now add a bit more butter, and two or three tablespoonsful of currie-powder. When these ingredients are well mixed over the fire with a wooden spoon, add gradually either hot water, or broth from the stock-pot; cover the stewpan, and let the whole boil up. Meanwhile, have ready the meat of a cocoa-nut, grated or rasped fine, put this into the stewpan with a few sour tamarinds (if they are to be obtained, if not, a sour apple, chopped). Let the whole simmer over the fire until the apple is dissolved, and the cocoa-nut very tender; then add a cupful of strong thickening made of flour and water, and sufficient salt, as a currie will not bear being salted at table. Let this boil up for five minutes. Have ready also, a vegetable marrow, or part of one, cut into bits, and sufficiently boiled to require little or no further cooking. Put this in with a tomata or two; either of these vegetables may be omitted. Now put into the stewpan the oysters with their liquor, and the milk of the cocoa-nut, if it be perfectly sweet; stir them well with the former ingredients; let the currie stew gently for a few minutes, then throw in the strained juice of half a lemon. Stir the currie from time to time with a wooden spoon, and as soon as the oysters are done enough serve it up with a corresponding dish of rice on the opposite side of the table. The dish is considered at Madras the ne plus ultra of Indian cookery.”[[98]]
[98]. Native oysters, prepared as for sauce, may be curried by the receipt for eggs or sweetbreads, with the addition of their liquor.