Daniel Santiagoe

“ There is the breakfast ready! The bill of fare may be thus:—Grilled chicken; boiled pumpkin or beans, sometimes potatoes; boiled rice; egg Curry; samball; tea, coffee, or beer, etc. The dinner might be similar to above with addition of soup. Sometimes the Curries are made from native vegetables, as there is plenty of nice and wholesome vegetables in Ceylon (I mean) besides the English vegetables. The rest-houses are in place of refreshment rooms and eating-houses are in England. ”

“ Slice one onion, one large spoonful of chopped-up ham (fresh, best) or nice corned beef (cooked) , one green capsicum cut in quarters, one small teaspoon of saffron powder, pinch of cayenne pepper if preferred hot Curry, half-pint of milk, salt to taste. Now put all these into a clean stew-pan and set on fire for twenty minutes or more, simmer gently, and let it reduce to half-pint. When serving add few drops of lemon juice and a large spoon of cream. The above Curry Sauce is very nice for fish and vegetables. If it is cooked up vegetable or fish, just add ten minutes before serving. ”

“ As to my opinion, Curries can be made from anything, if you could procure the proper Curry Powders, etc. Almost every Curry is made one or two ways, by only reducing, exceeding, or mixing the various Curry stuffs. Some Curries are hot, some dry, some juicy, some sour, and so on. Then the cooks celebrate the names in the menu as Delhi Curry, Agra Curry, Madras Curry, Curry à la Punjab, Bengal Curry, Mysore Curry, and several other names too numerous to mention in this little work. ”

“ Still, it is very troublesome to grind the Curry stuffs without a Curry stone, which is very common to a native Cooly of India. No native houses without a Curry stone. The way the native girls, etc., grind the Curry stuffs will be an astonishment to European ladies. The best way to grind the Curry powder in England, by hard stone made mortar or pounder, but the best and easy way is to buy from your respected grocers, which, I should say, ought to be of two colours, one is brown and the other is yellow, and the red is cayenne pepper (if required hot Curries) . ”

“ Curry stone and grinder will last for generations. It is better to grind all Curry stuffs separately and keep each in its own bottle, then you will be careful of what you are about, and you will know how much you are using of each stuff.
For any meat Curry (per lb.) add one tablespoon coriander seed, a saltspoon of saffron, a pinch of cumin seed, dash of pepper, small bit of cinnamon, one-half tablespoon of rice powder; if preferred hot, add a bit of cayenne. For white Curries, only one-half teaspoon of saffron to be added. ”

“ You must not beat up the steaks with a chopper or steak tenderer, because all the juice will be out; scarcely any taste. When serving add a few drops of lemon juice, and this Curry will taste nicer if gleeced before sending to table in the following way:—Set a stew-pan on fire, when hot put a small bit of butter and a small onion, finely sliced, and teaspoon of any gravy. Now use a wooden spoon for frying the onions, and press them in the sauce-pan. When nice and brown colour, and the fried onions have stuck in the sauce-pan, pour the Curry you prepared and a spoon of cream ”

“ Any curry may be made of different taste by reducing the ingredients or exceeding it, or by using tamarind or pickle vinegar instead of lemon juice, or using milk instead of gravy; and to some Curries add cream, and other Curries using cocoanut juice (milk) .
No. 11.—PORK CURRY.
One pound of fresh and lean pork, and the ingredients same as for Madras Curry, No. 4; use only three parts of everything. A pinch of Cayenne will flavour this Curry. Tamarind (an acid?) is nicer than lemon juice, vinegar, etc. ”

“ Just the same with Bombay Curries, but in Madras is the only place you could taste a proper Curry, and also in Ceylon, as a good many cooks of Madras Presidency came to Ceylon several years ago and spread out the art of general cooking in Ceylon. I believe at first the cooking business was instructed by European cooks. At present there is too many cooks in Ceylon; almost every butler, appoo, second servant, kitchen mate, groom, etc., knows to cook a English dinner!!! ”

“ The white Curry Sauce is not suitable, unless for a vegetable or fish.
I could give several other recipes to Curries, but the above said sixty will be quite sufficient. If you carefully tried the above said Curries will be found most economical.
A Madras woman can beat any other Indian woman in Curry cooking. In several gentry's houses in Madras, etc., they keep a woman to make Curries and prepare vegetables for table—we call her “Thanney Kareyitchi”—besides the cook and kitchen matey. ”

“ All human nature requires to be occasionally stimulated, and a mild Curry acts upon the torpid liver, reacts upon the digestive organs, and provides the necessary stimulant without injurious consequences. ”

“ Send to table with rice. Don't forget to add lemon juice or vinegar.
No. 19.—GAME CURRIES (Various) .
The Game Curry I mean is thus:—elk; venisons; poultry, as turkey, geese, duck, etc.; rabbit, etc. Can be curried same as No. 4, but it is not nicer to make them into a yellow Curry, as for fish or vegetables.
No. 20.—RABBIT OR YOUNG HARE CURRY.
N.B.—I think the Rabbit made into a gleeced brown stew much nicer than putting it in a jar, and prepare like a jugged hare, as it takes away all the flavour, and the gravy tastes nice, and the meat almost like the soup meat or plain boiled meat ”

“ The pillau rice should accompany roast fowl or mutton chops by dishing the meat on a flat dish, and cover it with pillau rice, and sprinkle over with fried onions, etc. Parsley mint can be fried and added. If it is to be eaten with Curry, use Madras Curry, kabob, or salmon, and omit the meat with pillau. ”

“ Same ingredients as for biscuits, No. 39, but meat must be cut two inches long and added to the stew-pan soon as the onions are fried. Give it stirring for some while by turning the pieces of meat in it. By-the-bye, the fresh meat should be fried a little brown, because fresh meat devilled always tough unless the meat is undercut. Extra spoons of gravy should be added to devilled meats. Cuttings from cold joints are nice devilled; but fresh beef ought to be of tender part (as I said before, undercut) . ”

“ I am afraid it is no use telling in this book, because the ingredients cannot be procured fresh, as mangoes, pineapples, lavi-lavi, blinga, tamarind, ripe chillies, chutnies, etc., etc. The above is a recipe I tried in Newera Eliya, Ceylon, where fresh mint can be had in any quantity of first class, same as in England and Scotland.
No. 45.—QUICKLY-MADE SAMBALL. How to make it in England.
Chop up fine one large onion, a teaspoon of cayenne, another of crushed sugar, one tablespoon finely-chopped ham (cooked) , one teaspoon salt, one tablespoon vinegar or lemon juice. ”

“ As Santiagoe says, “I like broken English, because ladies gentlemen like that.” The author is a native of Trichinopoly. His grandfather and uncle were distinguished drummers in Indian infantry regiments—in other words, they were masters of the tom-tom. ”

“ At once he will order to kill a chicken and grill it in Scotch form? and boil two eggs; when this is doing the kitchen mate [8] will squeeze half of a cocoanut, with little water mix some saffron, salt green chillie, Maldive fish, etc., now he boils this for five minutes. ”

“ Send to table on a flat dish large enough to carve the fowl, and leave enough gravy to go round the table; I mean not juicy, neither dry. The above should be treated as a joint. If any left can be warmed up in frying-pan, the fowl cut in pieces, and send to table with fried potatoes, garnished with nice green cabbage (boiled) , or Brussels sprouts will do best. The above will do better on a Sunday for dinner, as thus:—
No. ”