Curry of Chickens, À L'indienne
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RECIPE CARD WK5 © Ramon Grosso Dolarea CURRY OF CHICKENS, À L’INDIENNE Curry was seen in English recipe books from as early as 1747, but Victoria was the monarch who showed a real love of curry. In her later years she kept a mostly Indian staff and, it is said that curry was on the menu most days. Original recipe Adapting the recipe for modern use Charles Francatelli, Modern Cook (1855) This relies, as do many Victorian recipes, on a branded sauce. A bewildering variety of proprietary pastes and powders were ry the pieces of chicken or fowl in butter, until they are brightly available in Victorian England (and had been since the late Georgian browned all over, and remove them into a stewpan; then slice F period, when curry first became popular). You can either buy up three large onions and two heads of celery, and put these into a a modern meat curry paste, or put together a suitably Victorian stewpan, together with a clove of garlic, a garnished faggot of parsley, curry powder. a blade of mace, and four cloves. Fry the whole over a slow fire until they acquire a light brown colour; add a large tablespoonful of Cook’s Suitably Victorian curry powder (from Eliza Acton, Modern Cookery): meat-curry-paste, and a similar proportion of flour; mix all the above • 8oz turmeric together and moisten with a pint of good broth or gravy; stir the • 4oz coriander seed sauce over the fire, and keep it boiling for about twenty minutes, then • 2oz cumin seed rub the whole through a hair sieve or tammy, and afterwards pour it to the pieces of chicken. Set the curry to simmer gently over a slow • 2oz fenugreek seed fire until the pieces of chicken become tender, when the éntree may • 1/2oz cayenne (or more, to taste – Acton also suggests going be served as in the former case [with the sauce poured over, and plain easy on the turmeric). boiled rice on the side]. Dry the seeds (fry or bake), grind them and mix. She also suggests adding desiccated coconut to most curries – it works well as a garnish. For flour, many other recipes used rice flour, but plain will do. Historic Royal Places – Descriptors Small Use Width 74mm Wide and less Minimum width to be used 50mm Depth 16.5mm (TOL ) Others Various Icon 7mm Wide Dotted line for scaling Rules 0.25pt and minimum size establishment only. Does not print. RECIPE CARD WK5 © Tatiana Volgutova PEACH ICE WATER Ices came in three types: cream ice, water ice and sorbets (which were always alcoholic). There were a popular street food in the Victorian era, and they were an obligatory part of the dessert course, used as a palate cleanser and a showstopping finale to the meal. Original recipe You will need a large bowl, preferably plastic, a metal lidded container Agnes Marshall, Book of Ices, c.1888 (a coffee storage container is ideal), a bag of ice, crushed if you can get it, a bag of salt, a couple of wooden spoons and a spoon for eel 6 good peaches, and crack the stones, and remove the kernels, the salt. Pwhich must be pounded; put in a stewpan with 1 pint of water, 4 ounces of sugar, and juice of 1 lemon, cook the fruit for 15 minutes, Take a bag of ice (you will need at least 2kg), and smash it up with then tammy, and add a wineglassful of noyeau and 1 glass of orange a mallet, wooden rolling pin or wooden pestle if it isn’t already flower water, a little carmine. Freeze. crushed. Put about 3cm in the bottom of a large non-breakable mixing bowl. Sprinkle in a couple of tbsp of salt (this lowers the Adapting the recipe for modern use melting point, making everything much colder). Stand your metal container on this, with the lid on. Fill the space around it with more The peach kernel bits are to add flavour. You could add a few drops crushed ice and lots and lots of salt until the ice reaches almost of bitter almond essence instead. Tammying means to pass through to the top of the can. You should be able to see ice forming on the a sieve or cloth – a blender is a convenient modern equivalent. outside of the bowl, and the inside of the container will be freezing Noyeau is a bitter-almond-based drink and if it’s hard to obtain, use too. Mush down the ice with the end of a wooden spoon to mix the amaretto instead. salt and ice together (make sure you then keep this well away from Agnes Marshall was a brilliant Victorian entrepreneur. She advises the ice cream lest you get salt in it!). that you use her patent ice cream freezer for making your ices. Now add your ice cream or water ice mix to the can. Stir it well. Put However, if you have neither her version, nor a modern one, you the lid on and give the container a firm twist to get it turning freely can simply use the basic and timeless method of ice and salt in in the ice. You need to keep turning it and taking the lid off and a tub, with a metal lidded container sat snugly within. Herewith stirring it about every 10m until it is set. After a while, you’ll need to full instructions: scrape the sides of the container as the ice cream starts to freeze. RECIPE CARD WK5 This keeps the ice crystals small and gives it a good texture. Mix the RECIPE NOTES frozen stuff in with the rest and give it a good stir. Eventually (about 30 – 45mins) you’ll have set ice cream! You can either eat it now or The range of flavours was incredible: Agnes Marshall’s various put in the freezer for later. books exemplify the art, and if you are really into ice cream, then If the ice cream isn’t freezing after about 15mins, either you you can get either print on demand copies of the book, or a haven’t added enough salt to the ice, in which case add a few more slightly modernised set of recipes from it (published as Ice and tablespoonsful and remush with your carefully put aside wooden Ice Creams). Everything from curry to cucumber, and coffee to spoon, or you have too much sugar or alcohol in your mix. If the breadcrumbs is represented – it is truly fabulous. latter is the issue, you can try removing the mix, and diluting it with more cream (if ice cream) or water (if water ice/sorbet). Modern freezers tend to set the ice cream into a rock, so if you have stored it in the freezer, when you want to eat it, try and remember to give it 10mins at room temperature or 20 in a fridge. Or buy a chisel. If you want to make cream ice, follow exactly this method without the lemon juice, and instead of the noyeau and orange flower water, use 1½ pints of custard or slightly sweetened whipped cream and a few drops of vanilla essence]..