The Indian Cookery Book by - (good fiction books to read txt) 📕

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Title: The Indian Cookery Book (c.1900)

Author: Anonymous

eBook No.: 0500071.txt

Edition: 1

Language: English

Character set encoding: Latin-1(ISO-8859-1)—8 bit

Date first posted: January 2005

Date most recently updated: January 2005

 

This eBook was produced by: John Bickers and Dagny

 

Production note:

 

This text was prepared from an undated edition. There are two

facts that imply this edition was published before 1900. Firstly,

the first chapter refers to cyclones in 1864 and 1867 as recent

events. Secondly, the book is interleaved with pages of notepaper

for readers to add their own recipes, and one of these recipes

ends with a note that the recipe was cooked in 1899.

 

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Title: The Indian Cookery Book (c.1900)

Author: Anonymous

THE INDIAN COOKERY BOOK PUBLISHED BY

THACKER, SPINK & CO.,

CALCUTTA RICE OR CHOWL

Rice is consumed by most European families at breakfast, tiffin, and

dinner. It is eaten at breakfast with fried meat, fish, omelet,

country captain, or some other curried dish, and, being invariably

followed by toast and eggs, jams, fruit, &c., one coonkee, which

contains about as much as an ordinary breakfastcup, or say half a

pound, will always be ample for four tolerably hearty consumers. There

are two sizes of coonkees, large and small: reference is here made

to the small coonkee, well filled. The quantity, however, of raw

rice for a party of four should not exceed half a pound.

 

The rice at dinner is usually preceded by soup, fish, roast, and made

dishes.

 

The best or generally approved qualities of rice for table use are

known as the bhaktoolsee, the banafool, the bassmuttee, and

cheeneesuckur. In purchasing these, or indeed any other approved

quality, care must be taken to avoid new rice and what is called

urruah, which latter has been put through some process of boiling,

or damped, and then dried. Both are considered unwholesome for general

daily consumption, and few Indians will use them.

 

Good rice when rubbed in the palm of the hand, and cleared of dust,

will appear of a bright and nearly transparent yellowish colour;

whereas the urruah will be found of a dull whitish hue, and the

grain streaked and speckled with white powder, which crumbles on the

application of a needle’s point.

 

The price of rice, like other commodities, varies according to its

plenty or scarcity in the market. After the cyclone of October, 1864,

and again of November, 1867, the price of the bhaktoolsee and the

banafool, which are fine, large, stout-grain rice, without being

coarse, ruled at from eight to nine seers per rupee, and the

bassmuttee and the cheeneesuckur at from seven to eight seers per

rupee. The rice used by the poorest classes of the native population

is of a very coarse description and incredibly cheap: within six weeks

after the cyclone of November, 1867, it was readily procurable at

twenty-five to thirty seers per rupee.

 

Rice is used in a variety of forms: it is boiled, made into

kitcheeree, pellow, puddings, blanc mange, cakes, bread, &c.

 

The bhaktoolsee, the banafool, and other stout-grain rice are the best

adapted for boiling. Boiled rice is called bhath.

 

The bassmuttee, cheeneesuckur, and all small and fine-grain rice are

selected for kitcheeree, pellow, and puddings for children’s food, and

for invalids.

 

The urruah is used in some houses in ignorance, but for the most

part it is made into flour, and used for blanc mange, cakes, &c. The

flour is abundantly procurable in the Calcutta markets, and is largely

used by all native bakers in the making of bread.

 

Twenty-two to twenty-five seers of rice monthly, consuming it three

times a day, entertainments included, will be ample for a party of

four, allowing occasionally for a rice pudding.

 

It is necessary to wash rice thoroughly in several waters before using

it, and a colander is very useful for draining away the water after

washing the rice.

 

1.—Boiled Rice

 

Wash half a pound or a coonkeeful of rice, and put it to boil in a

large quantity of water, over a brisk fire. Immediately the rice

begins to boil, the water will bubble up to the surface of the pot and

overflow, carrying away quantities of scum and impurities. The cover

of the pot should now be kept partially open, and the rice stirred to

prevent an entire overflow of the water. On the subsiding of the water

or the bubbling, the fire should be reduced, until it is

satisfactorily ascertained that the grains of rice, without being

pappy, are quite soft, when the pot should be removed from the fire

and a quart of cold water be added. All the liquid, which is “conjee,”

should then be drained, and the pot replaced over a gentle charcoal

heat, to allow all moisture to evaporate, assisting the process by

occasionally shaking the pot, or stirring its contents gently with a

wooden spoon. Time to boil: half an hour.

 

The coonkee of rice when properly boiled will fill a good-sized curry

or vegetable dish. The rice will be found quite soft, and yet every

grain perfectly separate. Rice should never be cooked into a pap,

excepting it is required for very young children; and leaving the

grains hard or uncooked should be equally avoided.

 

A small pinch of pounded alum or fitkerree is used by some cooks

with advantage to improve the whiteness of boiled rice.

 

2.—Rice Conjee

 

The water in which rice is boiled should never be thrown away: it is

nutritious and fattening for all cattle, horses included, and may be

given daily to milch cows and goats with great advantage.

 

3.—Rice Kheer

 

This is occasionally served upon the breakfast-table as a treat, but

few Europeans care for it. It is made as follows:—Thoroughly boil one

coonkee or half a pound of the bassmuttee or the cheeneesuckur rice,

then drain the water away, add two cups of pure cow’s milk, and put

over a slow fire. As the rice begins to absorb the milk, two or three

small sticks of cinnamon are put in, with one tablespoonful and a half

to two tablespoonfuls of fine-quality white sugar. On the milk being

entirely absorbed, the kheer is either turned out upon a dish and

eaten hot, or put into a buttered mould, served up in shape, and eaten

cold.

 

Kheer is sometimes cooked or boiled in milk only, but the foregoing

recipe is supposed to be that more generally approved.

 

4.—Pish-Pash

 

Pick and wash in several waters a coonkee or half a pound of the

bassmuttee or other fine-grain rice; add to it, cleaned and cut up, a

chicken, some sliced ginger, sliced onions, a few bay-leaves, some

peppercorns, a few hotspice, a dessertspoonful of salt, one chittack

or two ounces of butter, and water sufficient to cover the whole.

Simmer over a slow fire until the chicken becomes perfectly tender and

the rice quite pappy. Serve up hot. This is considered a most

excellent and nutritious meal for invalids.

KITCHEEREES

These are occasionally substituted for boiled rice at breakfast, and

are eaten with fried fish, omelets, croquets, jhal frezee, &c. They

are prepared as follows:—

 

5.—Bhoonee Kitcheeree

 

Take rather more than three-quarters of a coonkee of bassmuttee or

cheeneesuckur and half a coonkee of dal; or, if preferred, take the

rice and dal in equal parts.

 

Take twelve large curry onions and cut them up lengthways into fine

slices. Warm up two chittacks or four ounces of ghee (but before doing

so be careful to warm the pot), and, while bubbling, throw in the

sliced onions, removing them immediately they become of a bright brown

colour. Set the fried onions aside, and throw in the dal and rice

(having previously allowed all the water in which they were washed to

drain through a colander). Fry until the dal and rice have absorbed

all the ghee; then add a few slices of green ginger, some peppercorns,

salt to taste (say one dessertspoonful), a few cloves, three or four

cardamoms, half a dozen bay-leaves, and as many small sticks of

cinnamon. Mix well together; add as much water only as will entirely

cover over the whole of the rice and dal, put a good-fitting cover on,

and set over a slow fire, reducing the same from time to time as the

water is being absorbed. Care must be taken not to allow the

kitcheeree to burn, which may be prevented by occasionally shaking the

pot, or stirring its contents with a wooden spoon.

 

Serve up quite hot, strewing over it the fried onions, which serve

both as a relish and garnish of the dish.

 

6.—Bhoonee Kitcheeree of the Mussoor or Red Dal

 

Is made according to recipe No. 5.

 

7.—Bhoonee Kitcheeree of the Moong or Small-grain Yellow Dal

 

Is made according to recipe No. 5.

 

8.—Bhoonee Kitcheeree of the Gram or Chunna Dal

 

The chunna or gram dal makes a very nice kitcheeree; but, as it is

rather hard, it should be boiled or soaked in cold water for an hour

or so before frying it with the raw rice.

 

9.—Bhoonee Kitcheeree of Green Peas

 

Kitcheeree made of green peas grown of English seeds is a rarity.

Large peas should be picked out and shelled; they should not be fried

with the rice, but added to it when nearly cooked. The instructions

given in recipe No. 5 are to be observed in all other respects.

 

10.—Jurrud or Yellow-tinted Kitcheeree

 

Jurrud or yellow-tinted kitcheeree is nothing more than one of the

above kitcheerees, to which is added, at the time of frying the rice

and dal, either a small quantity of saffron or turmeric, according to

the colour desired to be imparted. Such introduction in no way affects

the flavour, nor does it render the appearance of the dish more

attractive, but serves admirably as a variety for a large

breakfast-table.

 

11.—Geela Kitcheeree

 

This is usually made of moong dal with less than one-fourth the

quantity of ghee allowed for the bhoonee, or with no ghee at all, and

little or no condiments are used, excepting a small quantity of

finely-sliced green ginger, a few peppercorns, one or two bay-leaves,

and salt to taste. It is supposed to be better adapted than bhoonee

kitcheeree for children and invalids.

 

By bhoonee is meant crisp, and geela signifies soft.

PELLOW OR POOLOO

Pellows are purely Hindoostanee dishes. There are several kinds of

pellow, but some of them are so entirely of an Asiatic character and

taste that no European will ever be persuaded to