FoodNetArchive

The thorough good cook

1895

Page 25 · 1 recipe record on this page

Presented as published in 1895. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
are kinds of curry to be served ; for the list of Indian curries comprises " Lord Clive," " Malay," " Dry Madras,'" "J. P.," "Mrs. W.," for sweetbread, prawn, lobster, fish, vegetables, and mulligatawny, to say nothing of " pish-pash,"' "devil-pot," and hard eggs. The serving of curry, however,, is still incomplete. It must be accompanied by chutneyCurry,, one kind of which is made of stoned raisins, garlic, shallot,, chillies, mustard, salt, and sour apples all pounded together,, with brown suo-ar and vineo^ar. There is another chutney made of tamarinds, tomatoes,, lemon-peel, raisins, mustard, chillies, treacle, and vinegar. There is, furthermore, an exquisite chutney made in Ceylon, as a zest for the equally exquisite and famous Cingalese prawn-curry, which is one of the many glories of the capital cuisine of the Grand Oriental Hotel at Colombo. Into the composition of this fascinating condiment, grated cocoanut and pounded chillies enter largely ; and the huo of the engaging substance is a delicate pink. The object of all these inventions is to heighten the temperature of the curry itself in a greater or lesser degree, according to taste. (English curries, by the way, are almost in- variably too hot ; they are usually as fiery as whitebait in the "red-devil" stage.) In addition, there 'may be served with the curry the carefully dried and salted slips of fish facetiously known as " Bombay ducks " ; and again, at Colombo, there is brought with the curry another adden- dum, somewhat resembling the " ratafie " of the Emperor Akbar, being a thin, almost transparent cake, about the- size of a cheese-plate, and called " popodam." To the uninitiated, this Cingalese dainty has a suspicious resem- blance to a mixture of oatmeal and petroleum. It is made really of " dhall," or " doll " (ground pulse), and " ghee " (liquefied butter), compounded with asafa?tida, which loses its odious smell in cooking, and could well be modified in England by a mixture of potato flour and fresh butter.. 30 THE THOEOUGH GOOD COOK. Finally, ciiriy should never be eaten with a knife and fork, but "with a fork and spoon. If the globe-trotters returning from the burning land of India would teach us to eat curry as the Anglo-Indians eat it ; if they would only tell us something about Madras anchovy toast ; about " Agha's beard," and " country captain ' : about cocoa-nut pudding, yam pudding, cocoa-nut soup, and cucumber preserve, they might at least lay the foundation of an English tiffin a hundred times more appetising and more wholesome than the monotonous dishes Avhich weary ns at luncheon, in this land of fogs, poor cookery, indigestion, and the " blues." What shall we do with the Scraps?