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Burmese Croutes
Wash a quarter of a pound of rice, throw it into plenty of fast-boiling salted water, and let it boil until it is quite soft. Then drain the rice well and dry it on a clean cloth. Melt one ounce of butter in a saucepan, slice two small tomatoes thinly, and add them, together with a tea-spoonful of curry powder, and cook gently for ten minutes. Then add one ounce of grated Parmesan cheese, the boiled rice, a table-spoonful of Worcester sauce, and salt and pepper. Mix all thoroughly, and make very hot. Take some small water biscuits, make them hot in the oven, pile the mixture on them, sprinkle a little chopped truffle over each, and serve. Probable cost, 1s.
A savoury from the era when a hot, spiced mouthful closed a formal dinner. The method is straightforward; the traps are in the rice and in the assembly.
- QuantitiesA quarter pound of rice is a generous 1/2 cup dry, enough to top roughly a dozen small biscuits, though the recipe does not say how many. One ounce of butter is 2 tablespoons, one ounce of grated Parmesan about 1/3 cup.
- Boil the rice hard, then dry itThe instruction to boil in plenty of fast-boiling water and then dry the drained grains on a cloth is the hinge. Wet rice turns the mixture to paste and softens the biscuits within a minute of serving.
- "Quite soft" is not mushVictorian recipes overcooked rice by modern taste. Ten to twelve minutes for long-grain white is plenty; the grains should hold their shape so the pile sits up on the biscuit.
- Curry powderCommercial curry powder of the period was mild and heavy on turmeric and coriander. A teaspoon of a modern hot blend will dominate; start with a teaspoon of something mild and taste.
- Cook the spice, don't just stir it inThe ten minutes with butter and tomato is there to take the raw edge off the powder. Keep the heat low so the butter does not brown.
- Water biscuitsThese are plain unsweetened crackers, close to a modern water cracker or a thin unsalted cracker. Warm them at 350F for three or four minutes; assemble at the last moment.
- TruffleChopped truffle was a common garnish in cookery of this period and is now a luxury out of proportion to the dish. A few drops of truffle oil, or simply chopped parsley or chives, serves the same purpose of a fresh top note.
- ServingTwo per person as a savoury or an appetiser. They will not hold; make the mixture ahead, reheat, and top the biscuits as they go to the table.
"Burmese" here means nothing more than curry powder: late-Victorian and Edwardian kitchens attached the names of British-administered territories fairly loosely to any dish carrying Indian or Southeast Asian spicing, and Cassell's is full of such labels. The dish itself belongs to the English savoury course, the small hot bite of cheese, anchovy, roe or spiced rice served after the sweet and before dessert fruit, a course that survived in clubs and dining rooms well into the twentieth century before disappearing from home cooking. The construction on a croute, a round of fried bread or a plain biscuit, was the standard vehicle for these, and the combination of Parmesan, curry powder and Worcester sauce is characteristic of the period's fondness for layering strong bottled and grated flavourings rather than fresh aromatics. The "probable cost, 1s." is a Cassell's signature, aimed at a household cook working to a set weekly budget.