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Some Kitchen Kinks: India
Curry Powder. - This mixture of spices which apparently originated in India, but which is now a common commercial product everywhere, is a favorite flavoring for veal, lamb, or poultry. The precaution mentioned in connection with bay leaves, however, should be observed. A small amount gives a good flavor. It is usually used to season the thick sauces with which meats are served or in which they are allowed to simmer. While the term "curry" a APPENDIX is usually employed to describe particular mixture of spices made up for the trade it has another meaning. The words "curry" or "curried" are sometimes used to describe highly seasoned dishes of meat, eggs, or vegetables prepared by methods that have come from India or other parts of the East. India Curry. 1½ pounds veal. 1½ cup of butter or drippings. 2 onions or less. 1/2 tablespoonful curry or less.
Brown meat either without fat or with very little and cut into small pieces.
Fry the onions in the butter, remove them, add the meat and curry powder. Cover the meat with boiling water and cook until tender. Serve with a border of rice. This dish is so savory that it can be made to go a long way by serving with a large amount of rice. The two onions and one-half tablespoonful of curry powder are the largest amount to be used. Many persons prefer less of each.
In preparing the rice for this dish perhaps no better method can be given than the following: "Wash 1 cupful of rice in several waters, rubbing the grains between the hands to remove all the dirt.
Put the washed rice in a stewpan with 21/2 cupsful of water and 1 teaspoonful of salt. Cover and place where the water will boil. Cook for twenty minutes, being careful not to let it burn. At the end of this time put the stewpan on a tripod or ring and cover the rice with a fold of cheese cloth. Let it continue to cook in this manner an hour, then turn into a hot vegetable dish. The rice will be tender, dry and sweet, and each grain will separate. During the whole process of cooking, the rice must not be stirred. If a tablespoonful of butter is cut up and scattered over the rice when it has cooked twenty minutes the dish will be very much improved."
The butter is not necessary when the rice is served with India curry but may be included in dishes where less fat is used.
Curry of Veal. 2 tablespoonfuls butter or drippings. 112 pounds veal. 1/2 onion, chopped. 1 pint milk. 1 tablespoonful flour. 1 teaspoonful curry powder.
Salt and pepper.
Fry the onions in the butter or drippings, remove, and fry the veal until it is brown. Transfer the meat to the double boiler, cover with milk and cook until the meat is tender.
Add the curry powder a short time before the meat is done and thicken the milk with flour before serving.
SAUCES The art of preparing savory gravies and sauces is more important in connection with the serving of the cheaper meats than in connection with the cooking of the more expensive.
There are a few general principles underlying the making of all sauces or gravies, whether the liquid used is water, milk, stock, tomato juice, or some combination of these. For ordinary gravy 2 level tablespoons ful of flour or 1½ tablespoonsful of cornstarch or arrowroot is sufficient to thicken a cupful of liquid. This is true excepting when, as in certain recipes given elsewhere, the flour is browned. In this case about onehalf tablespoonful more should be allowed, for browned flour does not thicken so well as unbrowned. The fat used may be butter or the drippings from the meat, the allowance being 2 tablespoonsful to a cup of liquid.
The easiest way to mix the ingredients is to heat the fat, add the flour, and cook until the mixture ceases to bubble, and then to add the liquid.
This is a quick method and by using it there is little danger of getting a lumpy gravy. Many persons, however, think it is not a wholesome method and prefer the old-fashioned one of thickening the gravy by means of flour mixed with a little cold water. The latter method is of course not practicable for brown gravies.
Considering the large amount of discussion about the digestibility of fried food and of gravies made by heating flour in fat, a few words on the subject at this point may not be out of order. It is difficult to see how heating the fat before adding the flour can be unwholesome, unless the cook is unskillful enough to heat the fat so high that it begins to scorch. Overheated fat, as has already been pointed out, contains an acrid irritating substance called "acrolein," which may be readily considered to be unwholesome. It is without doubt the production of this body by overheating which has given fried food its bad name. Several ways of varying the flavor of gravies and sauces were suggested in the preceding section. One other should be especially mentioned here.
The Flavor of Browned Flour.
The good flavor of browned flour is often overlooked. If flour is cooked in fat until it is a dark brown color a distinctive and very agreeable flavor is obtained. This flavor combines very well with that of currant jelly and a little jelly added to a brown gravy is a great improvement. The flavor of this should not be combined with that of onions or other highly flavored vegetables. A recipe for a dish which is made with brown sauce follows:
Mock Venison.
Cut cold mutton into thin slices and heat in a brown sauce made according to the following proportions: 2 tablespoonsful butter. 2 tablespoonsful flour. 1 tablespoonful of bottled meat sauce (whichever is preferred). 1 tablespoonful red currant jelly. 1 cupful water or stock.
Brown the flour in the butter, add the water or stock slowly, and keep stirring. Then add the jelly and meat sauce and let the mixture boil up well.
APPENDIX CHAPTER II CHEESE AND ITS ECONOMICAL USES IN THE DIET * BY C. F. LANGWORTHY, PH.D.
Expert in Charge of Nutrition Investigations, Office of Experiment Stations AND CAROLINE L. HUNT, A.B.