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Curried Vegetables
Cook one cup each potatoes and carrots, and one-half cup turnip, cut in fancy shapes, in boiling salted water until soft. Drain, add one-half cup canned peas, and pour over a sauce made by cooking two tablespoons butter with two slices onion five minutes, removing onion, adding two tablespoons flour, three-fourths teaspoon salt, one-half teaspoon curry powder, one-fourth teaspoon pepper, few grains celery salt, and pouring on gradually one cup scalded milk. Sprinkle with finely chopped parsley.
Macedoine of Vegetables à la Poulette Clean carrots and turnips and cut into strips or fancy shapes; there should be one and one-fourth cups carrots and one-half cup turnips. Cook separately in boiling salted water until soft. Drain, and add one and one-fourth cups cooked peas. Reheat in a sauce made of three tablespoons butter, three tablespoons flour, one cup chicken stock, and one-half cup cream. Season to taste with pepper and salt, and just before serving add yolks two eggs and one-half tablespoon lemon juice.
MACEDOINE OF VEGETABLES À LA POULETTE. - Page 308.
STUFFED PEPPERS. - Page 298.
O'BRION POTATOES. - Page 315.
Two related dishes run together here: a curried vegetable macedoine in a milk-based white sauce, and a second version finished with an egg-yolk liaison. Both are straightforward once the sauce is understood.
- The hinge: the egg yolksIn the à la poulette version the yolks go in off the heat, tempered with a little of the hot sauce first, and the pan must not return to a boil. Above roughly 180F the yolks scramble and the sauce breaks into curds.
- "Fancy shapes"This means vegetables cut with a small fluted cutter or a ball scoop, or simply into even batons. The point is uniform size so the carrot and turnip finish together; a quarter-inch dice does the job.
- Curry powderThe commercial curry powder of the period was mild and turmeric-heavy. Modern blends are far more assertive, so start with a scant half teaspoon and taste. Blooming it in the butter with the onion, rather than adding it with the flour, gives a rounder flavour.
- Scalded milkMilk heated just to the point where bubbles form at the edge, around 180F. The habit is usually attributed to the days of unpasteurised milk; with modern milk it simply keeps the sauce from lumping when it hits the roux. Warm milk is enough.
- Sauce proportionsTwo tablespoons butter and two of flour to one cup milk is a medium white sauce, thick enough to coat. Cook the roux a minute or two before adding liquid so the flour loses its raw taste.
- Canned peasCanned peas of the period were soft and grey-green and needed only reheating. Frozen peas are the modern equivalent; add them at the very end so they keep their colour and bite.
- TurnipThe white turnip is meant, not swede or rutabaga. It cooks faster than carrot, so cook it in a separate pan as the second recipe directs.
- YieldEach version makes about three cups of vegetables, nearer four cups once the sauce is added; enough as a side dish for four.
- Stray textThe lines naming plate illustrations and page numbers at the end are captions from the book's photographic plates, not part of either recipe.
Macedoine is the standard nineteenth-century kitchen term for a mixture of vegetables (or fruits) cut small and evenly, the name generally traced to the ethnic mixture of Macedonia; à la poulette denotes a white sauce finished with egg yolk and lemon juice, a classic French liaison. The curried variant reflects how curry powder had settled into Anglo-American cooking by the 1890s: not as Indian food but as a seasoning for the standard white sauce, on the same shelf as celery salt and paprika. Both recipes also show the era's fondness for shaped vegetables, cut with the fluted cutters and ball scoops sold for the purpose, and the confidence with which canned peas were folded into a dish meant for company. The Boston Cooking School's method throughout is to teach one master sauce and then ring changes on it, which is exactly what these two entries are doing.