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

>after the oven is well heated, and ready to receive the pudding, pour

the mixture into a well-buttered pudding dish, and bake over a slow

fire until it is perfectly set.

 

232.—Goolgoola, or Fritters

 

Take half a seer or one pound each of flour, sugar, and milk, half a

dozen small sticks of cinnamon, a little yeast, and half a seer of

ghee; mix the flour with the yeast and a little milk; add water

sufficient to bring it to a thick consistency; then put into it

gradually the sugar and the remainder of the milk, and place it on the

fire, adding the cinnamon; keep stirring it with a large spoon until

it is again reduced to a thick consistency; remove it from the fire,

and when it has cooled make it up into small balls, and fry them in

ghee.

 

233.—Another Way (as usually served on the tea-table)

 

Take two chittacks or four ounces of soojee, four eggs well beaten up

and four chittacks or eight ounces of milk; mix the soojee and eggs,

beating them well together, and gradually add the milk. Melt down

three chittacks or six ounces of ghee in a small but deep pan; pour

into the boiling ghee in one spot the mixture, a dessertspoonful at a

time, and fry until of a rich brown colour. Serve up hot, sprinkled

with crushed crystallized sugar.

 

234.—Cajure

 

Mix one seer of soojee with four tablespoonfuls of ghee; add half a

seer of sugar; mix well together; then pour in gradually a quarter of

a seer of milk, and last of all as much flour as will make a good

dough; let it be well kneaded, and then allowed to stand for two or

three hours.

 

Have some ghee melted; take the dough of the size of walnuts, shape

them like shells and fry them in the melted ghee until they acquire a

rich brown colour.

 

235.—Hulluah

 

Steep half a seer of soojee in one seer of water for twelve hours, or,

if the hulluah be made in the winter, let it soak for eighteen hours;

it will then be the “milk of soojee,” which strain through a coarse

duster, rejecting only such impurities as remain unstrained; add to

the milk half a seer of sugar, and boil it, stirring it all the time,

and as it thickens add three chittacks or six ounces of ghee, warmed

with a few white cardamoms and a few small sticks of cinnamon;

continue stirring it from first to last until the whole is well mixed

together, and the hulluah finally taken out of the pan; while warm put

it into shapes or moulds.

 

236.—Another Way

 

Take half a seer of soojee, ghee, sugar, almonds, and raisins, and a

few white cardamoms and sticks of cinnamon. Make a syrup of the sugar,

and set it aside. Roast the soojee, or brown it, and set it aside.

Melt the ghee, and fry the soojee with the spices in it, after which

put in the almonds and raisins, stirring it well all the time; last of

all add the syrup, and continue to cook and stir it until it thickens;

then remove into moulds or shapes while hot.

 

237.—A Two-pound or One-seer Plum Cake

 

This is the favourite cake for Christmas, weddings, birthdays, and

christenings in India, and consists of the following ingredients:—

 

Butter, perfectly free of water 4 lb or 2 seers

Good clean sugar 2 ” or 1 “

Raisins, cleaned, stoned, and dried 2 ” or 1 “

Currants, cleaned, stoned, picked, and dried 2 ” or 1 “

Jordon almonds, blanched and sliced very fine 2 ” or 1 “

Preserved ginger -+ -+

” citron | All cut into small |

” orange-peel +- pieces and well +- 2 ” or 1 “

” lemon-peel | dried, mixed |

” pumpkin -+ -+

Cinnamon, finely pounded and sifted 1 Tablespoonful

Nutmegs, finely grated 1/2 “

Dried orange-peel, finely pounded and sifted 1/2 “

English caraway-seeds, cleaned and picked 2 “

Mace, finely pounded and sifted 1/2 “

Finely-sifted flour 1 1/2 lb or 3/4 seer

Soojee 1/2 lb or 1/4 seer

Eggs, new or fresh laid 40

Brandy of the best quality 1 claretglass

 

An experienced man ought to be engaged to mix the ingredients, which,

if properly done, will take fully one hour.

 

Have two large glazed earthen preserving-pans; put the sugar into one,

and bruise it well down, breaking all the lumps; add to it three

pounds and three-quarters of butter; then throw in one by one all the

yolks of the forty eggs, and throw the whites into the other

preserving-pan, mixing the sugar, butter, and the yolks the whole

while briskly and without ceasing. While one man is mixing these

ingredients another ought to be actively employed in beating up the

whites of the eggs unceasingly for nearly an hour.

 

After the butter has been well mixed with the sugar and eggs, dredge

in all the finely-pounded spices and the caraway-seeds; after a while

dredge in the flour and soojee in small quantities at a time (this

must be well mixed); the currants, raisins, and preserves, with the

almonds, are next to be added. By this time the man will have been

engaged in mixing the ingredients fully three-quarters of an hour.

 

After the raisins, &c., have been thoroughly mixed, pour in the brandy

very gradually, and in small quantities at a time, and last of all add

the well-beaten whites of the forty eggs: the stirring now must be

very brisk to effect a perfect mixture of the whites of the eggs right

through; fill quickly into the moulds, and bake without a moment’s

delay in a brisk baker’s oven.

 

N.B.—The moulds ought to be lined with paper and well buttered.

 

238.—Swiss Cakes

 

Take butter, flour, and sugar, of each the weight of four eggs; beat

the yolks with the sugar and some grated lemon-peel, or ten drops of

essence of lemon, and one large teaspoonful of rose-water, or

orange-flower water if preferred; add the butter just melted, and

slowly shake in the flour, beating it until well mixed; beat the

whites of the eggs to a froth, mix the whole together, and beat on for

a few minutes after the whites are added. Butter a tin, and bake the

cake half an hour.

 

239.—Queen Cakes

 

Prepare eight ounces of fresh butter beaten to a cream, six ounces of

pounded and sifted loaf sugar, half a pound of dried and sifted flour,

the same quantity of cleaned and dried currants, four well-beaten

eggs, a little grated nutmeg and pounded cinnamon, and a few pounded

bitter almonds; then add the sugar to the butter, put in the eggs by

degrees, after that the flour and the other ingredients; beat all well

together for half an hour, and put it into small buttered tins, nearly

filling them, and strew over the top finely-powdered loaf sugar. Bake

them in a pretty brisk oven.

 

240.—Shrewsbury Cakes

 

Mix with half a pound of fresh butter, washed in rose-water and beaten

to a cream, the same quantity of dried and sifted flour, seven ounces

of pounded and sifted loaf sugar, half an ounce of caraway-seeds, and

two well-beaten eggs; make them into a paste, roll it thin, cut it

into round cakes, prick them, and bake them upon floured tins.

 

241.—Another Way

 

Rub into a pound of dried and sifted flour half a pound of fresh

butter, seven ounces of sifted loaf sugar, the same quantity of

cleaned and dried currants, and a little grated nutmeg; make it into a

paste with a little water and two tablespoonfuls of rose or

orange-flower water; roll it out, and cut it into round cakes; prick

them, and bake them upon tins dusted with flour.

 

242.—Shortbread

 

For two pounds of sifted flour, allow one pound of butter, a quarter

of a pound of candied orange and lemon-peel, a quarter of a pound each

of pounded loaf sugar, blanched sweet almonds, and caraway comfits;

cut the lemon, the orange-peel, and almonds into small thin bits, and

mix them with a pound and a half of the flour, a few of the caraway

comfits, and the sugar; melt the butter, and when cool, pour it into

the flour, at the same time mixing it quickly with the hands; form it

into a large round nearly an inch thick, using the remainder of the

flour to make it up with; cut it into four, and with the finger and

thumb pinch each bit nearly all round the edge; prick them with a

fork, and strew the rest of the caraway comfits over the top. Put the

pieces upon white paper dusted with flour, and then upon tins. Bake

them in a moderate oven.

 

243.—Scotch Shortbread

 

Warm before the fire two pounds of flour and one pound of butter free

of water; rub the butter, with twelve ounces of sugar, into the flour

with the hand and make it into a stiff paste with four eggs, well

beaten; the rolling-out to the required thickness must be done with as

little use of the rolling-pin as possible; either take small pieces,

and roll them into oblong cakes, or roll out a large piece and cut it

into squares or rounds; prick a pattern round the edge of each cake

with the back of a knife, and arrange slices of candied peel,

caraway-seeds, and caraway comfits in a pattern. They will take about

twenty minutes to bake, and the oven itself should not be too quick.

The mixing of flour, sugar, and butter, and afterwards of the eggs,

must be done very thoroughly and smoothly.

 

244.—Another Way

 

Take two pounds of flour, one pound of butter, four eggs, and twelve

ounces of loaf sugar powdered very finely; rub the butter and sugar

into the flour with the hand, and by means of the eggs convert it into

a stiff paste; roll it out half an inch thick, and cut into square or

round cakes; pinch up the edges to the height of about an inch, and on

the top of each cake place some slices of candied peel and some large

caraway comfits, pressed down so as to imbed about half of each in the

cake. Bake in a warm oven upon iron plates.

 

245.—Gingerbread Nuts

 

Take three pounds of flour, a pound of sugar, three pounds and a half

of treacle, half an ounce of caraway-seeds, half an ounce of allspice,

two ounces of butter, half an ounce of candied lemon-peel, three

ounces of ground ginger, half an ounce of coriander, the yolks of

three eggs, and a wineglassful of brandy; work the butter to a cream,

then the eggs, spice, and brandy, then flour, sugar, and then hot

treacle; if not stiff enough, a little more flour must be added in

rolling out, but the less the better.

 

246.—Another Way

 

Take two pounds of flour, one pound and a quarter of treacle, half a

pound of sugar, two ounces of ginger, three-quarters of a pound of

butter (melted), and a small quantity of cayenne pepper; mix all

together and roll out to about the thickness of half an inch, or not

quite so much; cut into cakes, and bake in a moderate oven.

 

247.—Ginger Cakes

 

In two pounds of flour well mix three-quarters of a pound of good

moist sugar and one ounce of the best Jamaica ginger; have ready

three-quarters of a pound of lard melted, and four eggs well beaten;

mix the lard and eggs together and stir into the flour, which will

form a paste; roll out into thin cakes and bake in a moderately heated

oven.

 

Lemon biscuits may be made