Anglo-Indian cookery at home

Chicken Curry. — Take a chicken or a young fowl ; skin, clean, and joint it, dividing the backbone into three. Put a tablespoonful of “ ghee,” butter, lard, or dripping into a stewpan with one shredded onion, and fry till brown. Now add a few cloves of garlic, and a tablespoonful of curry powder ; and fry all together for some minutes, taking care that the mixture does not “ catch ” at the bottom of the pan. Throw in your meat and fry for several minutes, stirring briskly. Next pour in a breakfastcup and a half of water with a little salt, give it a thorough stir ; cover, and boil gently for fifteen minutes. Now uncover, and as soon as the gravy thickens (i.e., the water has boiled away), add a teacupful of cocoanut milk, or cow’s milk, and again boil for five minutes. As soon as the grease rises to the surface, pour in a tablespoonful of tamarind water, vinegar, or the juice of half a lemon. Keep on the fire for a few minutes longer, then serve. Fresh Mutton Curry. — The neck is undeniably the best part. Cut up and wash one pound of meat, fry your onion (as above), add your garlic and curry powder, fry all well together, then put in the mutton ; fry it in the mixture, and, when well amalgamated, add two breakfast- cupfuls of water and a little salt ; cover, and let it simmer gently for about fifteen minutes, or until you find the meat tender and the liquid perceptibly diminished. Now add a teacupful of cocoanut or cow’s milk ; go on simmering till the grease appears at the surface and the gravy thickens, when add a tablespoonful of tamarind water, vinegar, or the juice of half a lemon, and serve. Cold Meat (any kind) Curry— Cut it up into dice, and proceed exactly as if you were dealing with fresh mutton (as above), only omitting the two breakfast cupfuls of water and its attendant fifteen minutes boil. Ball Curry. — You will find a mincing machine handy in making this, our noisy Indian method of chopping and mincing being impracticable in this country. Any description of meat will do ; mince a pound of it. Grrind to a paste the following : A piece of green ginger, a little allspice and salt, half an onion, half a garlic. Mash this paste with the mince meat and the yolk of one egg. Fashion the mixture into balls, the size of large cherries, and fry them in “ ghee,” butter, dripping, or lard. Your balls now being ready, take them out of the grease, which utilise by frying therein one sliced onion till brown ; then add a tablespoonful of curry powder and fry, after which pour in a teacup of cocoanut or cow’s milk and give it a boil, when add the balls, cover, and allow to simmer for ten minutes. Now uncover, stirring occasionally till the gravy thickens, when add a tablespoonful of tamarind water, vinegar, or juice of half a lemon, and serve. Malay Curry. — Called also Ceylon Curry. A delicious preparation, and an agreeable change. Chicken, mutton.