Part 88

Dal-puri.-½ lb. lentil curry, 1 lb. ordinary light pie pastry. When the lentil curry has become quite cold, mash it thoroughly in a mortar till reduced to a fine pulp. Divide it and the pastry into pieces each of the size of a walnut. There ought to be now twice the number of the latter as of the former. Take 2 of the lumps of paste and form them into small shallow bowls, put one of the lumps of the curry-pulp into one of these bowls; carefully adjust a second bowl on the first, and roll the whole out to the size of a dessert plate on a paste board. Make similar cakes till all the materials are used up. Fry each cake separately in a frying-pan with boiling oil, lard, or butter, and serve very hot with the dam-pukht.

Dam-pukht.--Dam-pukht, like many Oriental dishes, is of Persian origin, and etymologically signifies a stew which has been very slowly simmered; in fact, the whole art of preparing it consists in carefully simmering it as gently as possible. For this reason, a gas or oil stove, in the absence of a charcoal fire, is the best means of cooking it, as, under such conditions, the heat can be more easily adjusted for the purpose in view than in the case of the ordinary coal fire. Indeed, in England all Oriental cookery is much more easily and conveniently prepared with the aid of such stoves. Therefore, if satisfactory results are desired, the use of coal fires should, if possible, be eschewed. Dam-pukhts can be made with any kind of poultry--duck, goose, fowl, &c., or with game birds, such as pheasants, partridges, &c. As the details of preparing all dam-pukhts are practically the same, a single example, given below, in which the process is displayed, will suffice to explain every case. In the same way, by substituting a brace of pheasants or partridges for the duck, and with exactly the same quantity of ingredients, a pheasant or partridge dam-pukht can be made. A goose will require half as much again, or, in the case of a large one, twice the quantity of ingredients, otherwise the details are identical.

Dam-pukht of Duck.--A large fat duck (the fatter the better), 2 lb. beef, ½ lb. beef suet, 2 oz. butter, 1 oz. grated breadcrumbs, 1 tablespoonful sweet herbs, 1 teaspoonful each soy and apple sauce, mustard-oil, olive-oil, pepper and salt, and mixed spices and birdseye chillies to taste; also any vegetables, such as carrots, turnips, potatoes, cauliflowers, marrow, &c., which may be procurable. After the duck has been feathered, singed, and cleaned, bone it carefully, so as not to break the skin; mix the soy and apple sauce, mustard-oil and olive-oil well together, and pour it into the bird. Make a good gravy of the giblets, flavouring with pepper, salt, and sweet herbs. Mince the beef, suet, and the liver of the duck very small (if you can procure an extra liver or so by all means add them), then add the grated breadcrumbs, pepper, salt, spices, chillies, and sweet herbs, and thoroughly amalgamate the whole well together. Stuff the duck with the mixture. Now melt the butter and pour it into the duck, and, having put it into a stewpan, pour the giblet gravy over it, and let the whole simmer as gently as possible till tender. When ready, glaze it with ordinary glaze if to be eaten cold, if hot do not; but, in either case, serve surrounded by the vegetables plainly boiled, and accompanied with some hot pickles. Oriental epicures generally accompany dam-pukhts with a very nice kind of bread, called dal-puri. Dal-puris are also often served with curries--especially dry curries--pilavs, and very frequently alone.

Dhall Curry.--(_a_) Take ½ lb. mussoor or moong dhall; clean pick, wash and roast it; mix with it 1 large tablespoonful onions, minced fine, 1 saltspoonful ground chillies, same of turmeric and ground ginger, a clove of garlic minced fine, 1 teaspoonful salt; slice 2 onions lengthways, warm a stewpan, throw in 2 oz. butter, fry the sliced onions crisp, and remove; meanwhile cover the dhall and other ingredients with about 2 in. water above the whole, let it boil smartly until the dhall is dissolved: do not stir it while boiling, but let it cake; rub the mixture through a sieve, pour the dhall into the melted butter in which the onions were fried, stir until well mixed, cover the stewpan close, and simmer for about 20 minutes; serve very hot, with onions floating on the top of the mixture. Dhall may be made from peas, Egyptian lentils, gram, or haricot beans but the moong and mussoor dhall are the best.

(_b_) Slice and fry 4 onions in 2 oz. butter. When brown take them out; put into the butter the same ingredients as in (_a_), fry until of a golden colour, then add ½ lb. dhall, which fry until well done, then just cover the dhall with water, let it boil slowly for about 20 minutes, or until dissolved: serve with the fried onions.

(_c_) Prepare the dhall as in (_b_), work it up into a paste, then have ready some pie crust; roll it very thin, cut out about size of a saucer, place some of the dhall on each piece, turn the paste over, pinch the edges, throw into boiling butter or lard, and fry of a nice gold colour. In India rice boiled as for curry is eaten with dhall.

Fish Moolay.--Fillet a sole, or cut a grey mullet, mackerel, or haddock into nice pieces; rub with a little curry powder and salt; fry of a light brown in butter. Grate a coconut, pour over it a teacupful of boiling water, mash it well with a spoon, then strain. Cut an onion into slices, fry it in the butter the fish was fried, with a clove of garlic and 2 chillies (green are best); add the coconut water; when boiling put in the fish, a little vinegar, salt, and pepper; stew until the sauce thickens; serve very hot.

Hullvah (Indian Toffee).--Take equal weights of flour, butter, Sultanas, almonds, and sugar; melt the butter, stir in gradually the flour, let it fry until of a light brown, then add by degrees the Sultanas, then the almonds, which must be blanched and sliced; add the sugar, which should first be made into a thick syrup; keep stirring until sufficiently cooked, pour into buttered moulds or shapes.

Jal-frizi.--It is always made of meat--veal, beef, mutton, or pork--which has been previously cooked. An underdone joint comes in very handy for the purpose. Take 1 lb. any cold meat available, 6 onions 1 in. in diameter, 2 oz. butter, salt and chopped green chillies to taste. Remove all bones and gristle from the meat before weighing; cut it up as for hash. Slice the onions fine; mix the meat, onions, chillies, and salt well together. Put the butter into the frypan, and, when it boils, add the rest of the ingredients, and fry the whole constantly stirring until the onions are tender, when serve piping hot.

Kedgeree.--(_a_) Take 1 breakfastcupful rice, boiled and strained, 4 eggs boiled hard, haddock or any other white fish; mince them all together with a knife; put a piece of fresh butter in a stewpan, make the whole very hot, and season with salt and cayenne to taste. (_b_) Steep ½ pint split peas or Indian dhall in water, add ½ lb. picked and washed rice, with a little ginger, mace, and salt; boil till the peas and rice are swollen and tender, then stir the whole till the water has evaporated; have ready some hard-boiled eggs cut in halves, and an onion or two sliced and fried to garnish with. To be well dressed neither the peas nor rice should be clammy. (_c_) 1½ teacupful of rice, 12 cloves, 6 cardamoms, 2 teaspoonfuls coriander seeds; let them boil ¼ hour, then add ½ teacupful dhall, let it boil 5 minutes, drain it quite dry. Then put it back quickly into the saucepan, with a small piece of butter and a little salt; let it stand on the hob for 20 minutes; garnish with hard-boiled eggs and fried onions.

Khabobs.--Khabobs, which form another very favourite Indian dish, are composed of fish, flesh, or fowl, with vegetables and spices. They are either cut into slices or else pounded and formed into balls, and then strung on wooden skewers and roasted or fried. They can be served dry or with gravy. As a rule fresh meat is used, but cold chicken, with a little bacon or ham to give it a flavour, and cold roast beef can be cooked in this way. Example:

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.

Rice, Boiled.--Take 1 breakfastcupful Patna rice, pick it free of all foreign matter, wash it in several waters until perfectly clean. Put it, with a saltspoonful salt, into a large saucepan with sufficient water to cover it well. This water may be cold or otherwise, as it does not affect the result. When it is nearly done--which may easily be known by squeezing a grain between the fingers, for if there is just a suspicion of a core it is right--take it off, drain off the water by pushing aside the lid and tilting the pan over. Then at once put the pan under a tap, cover the rice quickly with cold water, drain it off quickly, and repeat the process. Now take the pan containing the drained rice and place it on the hob without any cover, shaking it constantly about to permit the remaining moisture to escape as steam. Care must be taken not to allow the grains adhering to the bottom and sides of the pan to become scorched or shrivelled up. In 3-4 minutes the rice will have become thoroughly cooked by the steam, and each grain separate. There must be no hesitation when you douche the rice with cold water; its object is to wash away all the starch, which clings to the grains and causes them to cohere, and the more water you use the quicker will it be done. The grand secret of boiling rice consists in this washing process. Of course, it cannot be expected that this knack will be learned to any degree of nicety at the first essay; a few patient experiments must, however, finally lead to success, as it is the way in which the greatest rice-eaters of the world--the natives of India--cook it.

Tamarind Fish.--When used as a relish for breakfast, or to eat with a curry, it should be first cleaned of the mixture by scraping with a knife, and then fried, being served very hot.

_Italian._--Bracciolette.--Take a piece of fillet of beef, remove all fat and gristle, and mince it finely, mixing with it salt, 1 or 2 cloves (powdered), and a little oil and chopped fat bacon, sweet herbs and parsley to taste. When well amalgamated roll it out, and divide it into small pieces; form each piece into an olive, roll them in liquefied butter, and then in fine breadcrumbs. Just before they are wanted, broil at a good fire, first on one side, then on the other; if done too long they will be spoilt.

Codfish.--Take 3 lb. cod, pick in pieces, remove all bones and skin; take an onion in slices, fry with 2 tablespoonfuls Lucca oil, and 1 oz. butter, add 1 tablespoonful chopped parsley, a little ground cinnamon, mace, and pepper; put in the fish, and stew ½ hour. The same can be done with salted cod after soaking for some hours, in which case do not put salt.

Croccante.-½ lb. finely chopped (and blanched) sweet almonds, ½ lb. loaf sugar, 1 tablespoonful essence of lemon, a piece of butter size of a walnut; boil in a saucepan till it sets (15-20 minutes), turn into a flat shape to set; to be eaten cold.

Galoni.-½ lb. flour, a pinch of salt, 2 eggs beaten, ¼ lb. butter; knead all very thoroughly ¾ hour, roll out very thin, cut in strips or any fancy shapes, fry in boiling lard, place on a hot dish with a napkin, sprinkle with pounded sugar, and serve.

Gniocchi of Semolina.--Take 1 lb. good semolina and 1 pint milk. Put the milk, with an equal quantity of water, on the fire, and before it reaches boiling point sprinkle in the semolina and let it boil, stirring all the time. When sufficiently cooked turn it out on the pasteboard, which has been previously sprinkled with cold water. When cold, cut the paste into pieces the size of a walnut. Put them on a dish, season them well with grated Parmesan, sugar, and cinnamon, add butter; put them in the Dutch oven, and bake 1 hour before serving.

Milanese Stew (Umido).--Take a good-sized piece of beef, and, after well beating and washing it, put it in a basin, cover it with wine, and let it remain for a night. In the morning take out the meat, lard it with strips of bacon, season it with powdered cloves, cinnamon, and salt, lay it in a stewpan with the wine, a faggot of parsley, one of sweet herbs, ½ onion, and a clove of garlic. Boil slowly, with the stewpan closely covered, till the meat is well done.

Minestra.--Cut up 3 or 4 potatoes, add a proportionate quantity of beans (dried ones best), onions, carrots, and celery, sliced, and, if in season, sliced vegetable marrow and pumpkin rind. Boil all these in ¼ saucepan of water till the potatoes are quite soft, adding salt. Then add ¼ lb. rice or maccaroni; boil a little longer, as the rice ought not to be soft, and before taking off the fire add 1 oz. butter (orthodox, a spoonful of fine olive oil), and as much Parmesan cheese; stir a few minutes and serve. In both cases grated cheese may with advantage be added afterwards.

Pickled Fish.--Flour the fish and fry it in oil, and put it by to drain. Pound in a mortar 2 or 3 sprigs of mint, 1 capsicum (fresh, if possible), 2 cloves of garlic, and salt to taste; gradually work in some wine vinegar (say about 1 pint), put this sauce into a saucepan, let it boil for 5 minutes, pour it boiling hot on the fish, and serve when cold.