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Vermicelli, Indian Style
Place in a saucepan one sliced carrot, one sliced onion, two branches parsley, one branch chervil, one sprig thyme, two bay leaves, one clove, one nutmeg leaf, a sprig marjoram, four crushed tomatoes, five pints water and two pounds fresh heads of fish bones, then let slowly boil for one hour. Strain the broth through a double cheesecloth into another saucepan and let again come to a boil. Add three ounces crushed vermicelli, a teaspoon salt, one teaspoon curry powder and three saltspoons pepper, lightly mix and boil for twenty minutes. Pour into a soup tureen and serve.
A fish-stock soup finished with vermicelli and curry powder he the whole of its claim to being "Indian style." Two of the original timings are longer than modern practice allows, and both matter.
- Don't boil the stock an hourFish bones give up their gelatin and flavor in 20 to 30 minutes; past that they turn the broth bitter and cloudy. Simmer gently rather than boiling, and skim the grey foam that rises in the first few minutes.
- Fish heads and bones"Two pounds fresh heads of fish bones" means heads and frames from lean white fish — halibut, snapper, sole, cod. Avoid oily fish such as salmon or mackerel, which make a stock that reads rancid. Remove the gills, and rinse the bones until the water runs clear.
- The vermicelli timingTwenty minutes will reduce crushed vermicelli to paste. Add it to the strained, simmering broth and give it 5 to 8 minutes, tasting as you go, then serve immediately — it keeps softening in the hot tureen.
- Nutmeg leafAlmost certainly not a leaf of the nutmeg tree, which was not sold in American markets; the phrase most likely stands in for a blade of mace, the lacy covering of the nutmeg seed. Use one blade of mace, or a very small grating of nutmeg added at the end.
- SaltspoonsA saltspoon is usually reckoned a quarter teaspoon (some period sources make it smaller), so three saltspoons of pepper is about three-quarters teaspoon -- assertive but not wrong for five pints. The recipe already salts after straining, which is the right order.
- Curry powderReady-blended curry powder of this period was generally turmeric-forward and milder than most regional Indian masalas, though commercial blends varied. Bloom the teaspoonful in a little butter or oil before whisking it into the broth; added dry it tastes raw and dusty.
- Chervil and marjoramChervil wilts to nothing and is often unavailable; parsley plus a pinch of tarragon covers its anise note. Two bay leaves in five pints is on the heavy side — one is enough if the leaves are fresh.
- YieldFive pints of water will yield somewhat less broth after simmering and straining, depending how long you cook it; reckon on six to eight first-course servings. Strain through cheesecloth as directed; the doubled layer catches the fine bone grit that otherwise settles in the bowl.
This comes from Alexander Filippini's The International Cook Book (1906), and it belongs to a long line of hotel-kitchen dishes labeled "Indian style" or à l'indienne on the strength of a single spoonful of curry powder. In the French professional idiom that Filippini worked in — he cooked for years at Delmonico's in New York — à l'indienne was a formal garnish name, not a claim of authenticity: it signaled curry powder, sometimes rice, and nothing more. The base here is an ordinary fumet de poisson, the classic fish stock built on carrot, onion and a bouquet of herbs, with tomatoes for body and color. Wheat vermicelli in a spiced broth is not far from the semiya soups and upmas of South India, but there is no evidence the connection was deliberate; the more likely story is an Italian-trained kitchen reaching for the pasta it already had on the shelf. What the recipe does document is how thoroughly curry powder had been absorbed into Western restaurant cooking by 1900, sold ready-blended and treated as a flavor of its own rather than a mixture to be ground for a particular dish.