Estimated Nutrition (whole recipe, rough)
Counts 8 of 9 ingredients — the other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and contribute nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
What these numbers assume — 8 portions →
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 1 cup (125g) all-purpose | 455 |
| Butter | 1 tbsp (14g) | 102 |
| Onion | 1 medium (110g) | 44 |
| Lemon | juice of 1 lemon (48ml) | 12 |
| Nutmeg | 1 tsp ground (2.2g) | 12 |
| Turmeric | 1 tsp ground (3g) | 9 |
| Black Pepper | 1 tsp ground (2.3g) | 6 |
| Cayenne | 1 tsp (1.8g) | 6 |
| Mutton | not in our table | 0 |
Totals for the whole recipe, adding one typical portion per ingredient — listed above. Quantities in the recipe are not counted, so this is a rough guide only — not suitable for medical or dietary planning.
Ingredients
- two ounces the proportion of turmeric
- two ounces of fresh butter
- one pint of strong mutton
- a teaspoonful of black pepper
- eight ounces
- four ounces
- two ounces
- one lemon
- one large tablespoonful of _my_ currie-powder
- six onions that have been chopped fine
- two tablespoonsful of flour
- one half too
- black pepper
- nutmeg
- cayenne
- pepper
Directions
THE great superiority of the oriental curries over those generally prepared in England is not, we believe, altogether the result of a want of skill or of experience on the part of our cooks, but is attributable in some measure, to many of the ingredients, which in a _fresh and green state_ add so much to their excellence, being here beyond our reach.
With us, turmeric and cayenne pepper prevail in them often far too powerfully: the prodigal use of the former should be especially avoided, as it injures both the quality and the _colour_ of the currie, which ought to be of a dark green, rather than of a red or yellow hue. A couple of ounces of a sweet, sound cocoa-nut, lightly grated and stewed for nearly or quite an hour in the gravy of a currie, is a great improvement to its flavour: it will be found particularly agreeable with that of sweetbreads, and may be served in the currie, or strained from it at pleasure. Great care however, should be taken not to use, for the purpose, a nut that is rancid. Spinach, cucumbers, vegetable marrow, tomatas, acid apples, green gooseberries (seeded), and tamarinds imported _in the shell_—not preserved—may all, in their season, be added, with very good effect, to curries of different kinds. Potatoes and celery are also occasionally boiled down in them. The rice for a currie should always be sent to table in a separate dish from it, and in serving them, it should be first helped, and the currie laid upon it.
MR. ARNOTT’S CURRIE-POWDER.
Turmeric, eight ounces.[95] Coriander seed, four ounces. Cummin seed, two ounces. Fœnugreek seed, two ounces. Cayenne, half an ounce. (More or less of this last to the taste.)
Footnote 95:
We think it would be an improvement to diminish by two ounces the proportion of turmeric, and to increase that of the coriander seed; but we have not tried it.
Let the seeds be of the finest quality. Dry them well, pound, and sift them separately through a lawn sieve, then weigh, and mix them in the above proportions. This is an exceedingly agreeable and aromatic powder, when all the ingredients are perfectly fresh and good, but the preparing is rather a troublesome process. Mr. Arnott recommends that when it is considered so, a “high-caste” chemist should be applied to for it.
MR. ARNOTT’S CURRIE.
“Take the heart of a cabbage, and nothing but the heart, that is to say, pull away all the outside leaves until it is about the size of an egg; chop it fine, add to it a couple of apples sliced thin, the juice of one lemon, half a teaspoonful of black pepper, with one large tablespoonful of _my_ currie-powder, and mix the whole well together. Now take six onions that have been chopped fine and fried brown, a garlic head, the size of a nutmeg, also minced fine, two ounces of fresh butter, two tablespoonsful of flour, and one pint of strong mutton or beef gravy; and when these articles are boiling, add the former ingredients, and let the whole be well stewed up together: if not hot enough, add cayenne pepper. Next put in a fowl that has been roasted and nicely cut up; or a rabbit; or some lean chops of pork or mutton; or a lobster, or the remains of yesterday’s calf’s head; or anything else you may fancy; and you will have an excellent currie, fit for kings to partake of.
“Well! now for the rice! It should be put into water which should be frequently changed, and should remain in for half an hour at least; this both clears and soaks it. Have your saucepan full of water (the larger the better), and when it boils rapidly, throw the rice into it: it will be done in fifteen minutes. Strain it into a dish, wipe the saucepan dry, return the drained rice into it, and put it over a gentle fire for a few minutes, with a cloth over it: every grain will be separate. When served, do not cover the dish.” _Obs._—We have already given testimony to the excellence of Mr. Arnott’s currie-powder, but we think the currie itself will be found somewhat too acid for English taste in general, and the proportion of onion and garlic by one half too much for any but well seasoned Anglo-Indian palates. After having tried his method of boiling the rice, we still give the preference to that of Chapter I., page 36.