Khabob Hoossainee.—Ingredients: Meat, 2 lb.; butter, ¾ lb.; onions, 1 lb.; cinnamon, ½ teaspoonful; cloves, cardamoms, black pepper, ¼ teaspoonful; green ginger, coriander, ¼ oz.; salt, ½ oz. Cut the meat a little larger than walnuts, rub some salt and the juice of green ginger over the pieces, cut the onions into slices and fry them in butter, and put on one side. Warm up the meat in the same butter, and when it is getting dry add a little coriander and water, and let it simmer gently on a slow fire for an hour; after the meat is boiled file it on a small wire skewer, first a slice of meat then one of onion, and so continue to file the slices on as many wires as required to look nice in the dish. Sprinkle over them the spices, ground into curry stuff, and fry them in a pan with butter, adding a little water to soften the meat; when done serve up.
Malagatani Soup.—3 pints stock, 6 onions 1 in. in diameter, 3 tablespoonfuls coarse lentil flour, 2 oz. butter or lard, 1 tablespoonful coriander seed, 1 teaspoonful cumin seed, a pinch of fenugreek, a few cloves and bird’s-eye chillies, and, if necessary, pepper and salt to taste; but, as the stock is already flavoured, the latter will seldom be required a second time. Slice the onions as fine as possible, and fry them with half the above quantity of butter or lard; when about half done, add the coriander seed (previously parched on a hot iron plate, the husks removed and then crushed), the cumin seed powdered, fenugreek ditto, chillies ditto, and the cloves whole. Fry the whole well, stirring constantly, until the onions have acquired a golden tint, adding more butter as required to prevent burning; parch the lentil flour by placing it on an iron plate on the fire. Mix the onions, condiments, and lentil flour well together. Put them all into a saucepan, and pour over them the prepared stock, which must be boiling hot; simmer the whole for at least ½ hour, when serve with a separate dish of plain boiled rice.
Malay Chicken (Doopiazeh Curry).—Take 3 oz. butter, 1½ teaspoonfuls salt, and tablespoonfuls ground onions, 1 teaspoonful each ground turmeric and chillies, ½ teaspoonful ground ginger, a clove of garlic, 1 teacupful coconut milk, and 2 or 3 onions cut lengthwise. Cut up the raw chicken into small pieces, fry crisp, and set aside the onions; then fry the other condiments of a rich brown; add the chicken when fried brown, pour in the coconut milk and the fried onions, let it simmer for an hour; serve with boiled rice in a separate dish as for curry.
Pilau.—(a) Fish.—1½ lb. cod (almost any kind of fish is suitable for the purpose—turbot, salmon, and sole being the best), 1 lb. rice, 1½ pints white stock, ¼ lb. butter, a small cupful of salad, or, better still, mustard oil, ditto curds, 8 small onions, 1½ oz. lentil flour, 1 dessertspoonful powdered ginger, 1½ tablespoonfuls coriander seed, 6 cardamoms, 6 cloves, a small clove of garlic, pepper and salt to taste, 2 hard-boiled eggs. Skin and bone the fish, wash it well in salt and water, cut it into thick slices, arrange them in a shallow dish, pour the oil over them, and let them soak for ½ hour, turning them over occasionally. Then wipe the oil off with a clean cloth, rub the slices over with the lentil flour, which wash off in a few minutes; dry, and finally turn the slices all over with a fork. Pulp 2 onions in a mortar, together with a third part of the ginger, coriander seeds, and cardamoms. Mix these with the curds, adding pepper and salt to taste. Cover the fish with this mixture. Boil some of the butter, and semi-fry the fish in it. Slice fine a couple more of the onions, and fry them; when half done add the semi-fried fish, and fry till a light brown colour, when put aside to keep warm in the oven. Fry separately 2 more of the onions finely sliced, and at the same time a third more of the coriander seed and half the cloves, in a few minutes add 1 small teacupful white stock, and let the whole simmer gently till it thickens into a sauce, which place on the hob to keep warm. Put the rest of the onions, coriander seed, cardamoms, and the garlic into the stock, let it simmer till reduced to a pint, when strain. Fry the remaining half of the cloves with butter in a saucepan for 2 minutes, then pour the strained stock into this saucepan and give the whole a boil up. Parboil the rice in water, strain it, and finish cooking it in the stock, being careful, when nearly done, to granulate the rice thoroughly by means of its own steam, all superfluous liquor, if there be any, being previously drained off. Serve with the fish arranged on the top of the rice, the sauce poured over all, and garnished with the hard-boiled eggs cut in circles, halves, or quarters, according to fancy.
(b) Fowl.—1 fowl, 1 lb. mutton, 8 oz. rice, 5 onions, 3 or 4 eggs, ½ lb. butter, 10 black peppercorns, 4 blades mace, 10 cloves, 10 cardamoms, 1 dessertspoonful salt, ¼ oz. green ginger. Put 1 lb. mutton cut into slices, and four whole onions, into 6 qts. water; boil all together until reduced to one-third, then mash the meat in the liquor, and set it aside. Wash 8 oz. rice well, and dry it by squeezing it in a cloth. Melt ½ lb. butter in a saucepan, fry in it a handful of onions (sliced lengthwise) until they have become brown, then remove, and lay them aside. In the butter that remains fry slightly a fowl that has been previously boiled; take out the fowl, and in the same butter add the rice, and fry it also a little, and, as the butter evaporates, add the above-mentioned broth to it, and boil the rice in it; then put in the pepper, mace, cloves, cardamoms, and salt, with the green ginger cut in slices. When the rice is sufficiently boiled, remove all but a little fire from underneath the “handy,” and put some live coals or charcoal on the cover. If the rice be at all hard, add a little water to it, and put the fowl in to get a flavour; finally cover it over with the rice, and serve up with a garnish of hard-boiled eggs cut in quarters. The “handy” is a sort of deep basin without handle, made of tin or tin lined copper, with close-fitting lid.
(c) Fruit.—1 lb. Patna rice, 8 bananas (almost every description of fruit can be substituted—quinces, pears, mangoes, &c.), 1½ lb. sugar, 2 lemons (when procurable, 3 lemons preferable), ¼ oz. crushed ginger, ¼ oz. crushed coriander seed, 1 doz. each cloves and cardamoms, and a few small sticks of cinnamon. Make a syrup with ½ lb. of the sugar, flavour it with the ginger and coriander seed, let it simmer for 10 minutes after the spices are added, then strain and put aside. Parboil the rice in water, and finish cooking it in the above syrup, granulating it. Simultaneously with these operations, make a clear syrup with the rest of the sugar, flavour it with the juice of the lemons, the cloves, and cardamoms; after it has simmered for 10 minutes put in the bananas, each cut lengthways into 2 or 4 pieces, let them stew till done. Place the rice in a dish, arrange the bananas on it, strain off the spices from the syrup in which the fruit was stewed, and pour it over all and serve.
(d) Nuckodee Choofta.—3 lb. mutton, 1 lb. rice, 1¼ oz. suet, 2 eggs, 1 oz. flour, 1 lb. onions, ¾ oz. green ginger, ¼ lb. almonds, 2 oz. salt, ¾ oz. coriander seeds, 10 cloves, 8 cardamoms, 8 black peppercorns, a little cinnamon, saffron, and butter. Slice the meat and put it into a saucepan with a sufficient quantity of water, some sliced onions, green ginger, pounded salt, and coriander seeds, with a little butter. Boil all together until the meat is done, then strain the gravy into a basin, take out the meat, and warm it up in butter with half the cloves, after which add part of the other spices. Parboil the rice in plain water, then cook it in the gravy with the cinnamon, take the saffron, grind it with a little water, and colour a part of the rice, place this over the meat, or on one side of the saucepan, and the plain rice on the other. Pour some melted butter over the whole, cover the saucepan close, and set it near the fire. Mince very finely another lb. of meat, and warm it up in melted butter with some sliced onions, green ginger, salt, and coriander seeds; add a little water, and simmer gently till the meat is done, then put the meat into a mortar with the suet, some chopped onions, pepper, salt, and the white of the eggs, beat the whole together into a paste, form it into small balls, roll them in the flour, and then warm them up in melted butter with cloves; pound the almonds with a little water and the rest of the spices, and put it with the balls, which are now to be fried until properly done, and when ready placed over the pilau and served.
Pishpash.—Wash a breakfastcupful of Patna rice in 2 or 3 waters, drain; slice an onion. Get a small knuckle of veal, stew the veal slowly until half done, add then the rice and onion, a blade of mace, a few white peppercorns, and if liked 2-3 cardamoms. Cover close, and cook gently until the rice is done; season with salt to taste; serve very hot. This may be made with the scrag end of neck of mutton, fat being carefully cut off, or with a fat young chicken. The latter is most delicate for an invalid.
Quoormah (Persian Curry).—Take 2 lb. fat mutton, cut it into small pieces as for curry, sprinkle it with 1½ teaspoonful salt. Warm a stewpan, melt 5 oz. butter, fry 3 onions, sliced thin until crisp; remove, and add to the butter 1 tablespoonful ground onions, 1 teaspoonful ground chillies, 1 of ground coriander seed, ½ of ginger, a little cinnamon, and a clove of minced garlic; fry until well brown; put in the mutton and salt. When this is browned add the crisp onions, cut small, ½ pint curd, 8 peppercorns, 4 cloves, 5 cardamoms, and 2 or 3 bay leaves; stir well together. Closely cover the stewpan, and let the quoormah simmer slowly for about 2 hours. A little water may be added if it becomes too dry. Serve as curry; pork, beef, veal, or chicken may be used.