Curry powders and pastes are mixtures of spices intended to be added to ragouts and soups of meat. They all con- tain turmeric, ginger, coriander -seeds, cardamom -seeds, caraway-seeds, black and red pepper, and some cloves ; to some, pounded lychees are added, which impart sweetness. Coriander and fenugreek seeds should be parched before being added. Some add cummin, poppy, and mustard seeds. When such a powder is mixed with moist sugar or pounded raisins, some lemon or lime juice, or vinegar and red-currant jelly, it becomes curry-paste. The paste is preferable to the powder, as it acts more quickly, and aids in the extraction of the spicy parts from the powders. This is effected still more thoroughly by making a tincture or spirituous extract of the ptoioder, and adding of this small portions to the dish to be spiced, until the desired strength of taste be obtained. Curries considered as Fricassees. The process to be followed in cooking a chicken curry differs from that used for the preparation of a ragout or a fricassee only by the additions. Cut up a young chicken as for a fricassee, and dust the pieces over with flour from NATIONAL SOUPS AND COMPOUND DISHES 221 a dredger. Next prepare the coulis or mirepoix by frying onions in butter to a yellow-brown colour, add curry powder or paste, and fry these, then add by degrees some cocoanut- milk, and later some broth. Simmer to reduce, and place in water-bath. Fry the pieces of chicken in butter or suet to a light colour, and transfer them to the mirepoix; let stand in the water-bath for the meat to assume the curry flavour. Place the stewpan over the fire and boil gently, taking care that the chicken be immersed ; if more fluid be wanted, fill up with standard broth from Proust’s extract of meat. Adjust acidity, sweetness, and spice ; when the fowl is done, add some cocoanut emulsion. In case you prefer a thicker sauce, which characterizes a dry mirry, con- centrate it over the fire or in the oven. The soaking of the meat in the liquid curry stuff is im- portant, especially when previously cooked meat is to be curried. ' A salmis or a hash tastes much better if the meat of which it is composed has been marinaded for an hour or two hours before it is finally heated up in the gravy or sauce composed for it. It is the same with curry, and gives it time to become penetrated by the flavour. This explains why a warmed curry not rarely tastes better than a fresh one. If a gravy curry, says ‘ Wyvern ’ in concluding his learned chapter on curries, be kept during the night following its preparation in a porcelain curry-dish, and be revivified the next morning with some fresh butter, onion, and a little gravy, it ought to be found better than on the previous night, since the meat has become thoroughly flavoured by the curry gravy, while the latter has become reduced in volume and strengthened by the second simmering. The curries made of fresh fish, prawns, and shellfish require a somewhat different process, while those of minced cooked meat, tinned or cooked fish, dressed vegetables, and hard-boiled eggs, merely require to be gently heated up in a curry gravy. 222 THE SPIRIT OF COOKERY Varieties of Curry.

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Curry powders and pastes are mixtures of spices intended to be added to ragouts and soups of meat. They all contain turmeric, ginger, coriander -seeds, cardamom -seeds, caraway-seeds, black and red pepper, and some cloves ; to some, pounded lychees are added, which impart sweetness. Coriander and fenugreek seeds should be parched before being added. Some add cummin, poppy, and mustard seeds. When such a powder is mixed with moist sugar or pounded raisins, some lemon or lime juice, or vinegar and red-currant jelly, it becomes curry-paste. The paste is preferable to the powder, as it acts more quickly, and aids in the extraction of the spicy parts from the powders. This is effected still more thoroughly by making a tincture or spirituous extract of the powder, and adding of this small portions to the dish to be spiced, until the desired strength of taste be obtained. Curries considered as Fricassees. The process to be followed in cooking a chicken curry differs from that used for the preparation of a ragout or a fricassee only by the additions. Cut up a young chicken as for a fricassee, and dust the pieces over with flour from a dredger. Next prepare the coulis or mirepoix by frying onions in butter to a yellow-brown colour, add curry powder or paste, and fry these, then add by degrees some cocoanutmilk, and later some broth. Simmer to reduce, and place in water-bath. Fry the pieces of chicken in butter or suet to a light colour, and transfer them to the mirepoix; let stand in the water-bath for the meat to assume the curry flavour. Place the stewpan over the fire and boil gently, taking care that the chicken be immersed ; if more fluid be wanted, fill up with standard broth from Proust’s extract of meat. Adjust acidity, sweetness, and spice ; when the fowl is done, add some cocoanut emulsion. In case you prefer a thicker sauce, which characterizes a dry curry, concentrate it over the fire or in the oven. The soaking of the meat in the liquid curry stuff is important, especially when previously cooked meat is to be curried. ' A salmis or a hash tastes much better if the meat of which it is composed has been marinaded for an hour or two hours before it is finally heated up in the gravy or sauce composed for it. It is the same with curry, and gives it time to become penetrated by the flavour. This explains why a warmed curry not rarely tastes better than a fresh one. If a gravy curry, says ‘ Wyvern ’ in concluding his learned chapter on curries, be kept during the night following its preparation in a porcelain curry-dish, and be revivified the next morning with some fresh butter, onion, and a little gravy, it ought to be found better than on the previous night, since the meat has become thoroughly flavoured by the curry gravy, while the latter has become reduced in volume and strengthened by the second simmering. The curries made of fresh fish, prawns, and shellfish require a somewhat different process, while those of minced cooked meat, tinned or cooked fish, dressed vegetables, and hard-boiled eggs, merely require to be gently heated up in a curry gravy. Varieties of Curry.

The spirit of cookery