ABOUT CURRIES

Ladies' Mirror, Volume 3, Issue 5, 1 November 1924, Page 29

ABOUT CURRIES

Do You Know What a “ Rijst'Tafel” Isl

VERY FEW WHO HAVE NOT LIVED IN THE EAST KNOW HOW TO MAKE A REAL CURRY, ONE OF THE MOST APPETISING AND ECONOMICAL OF DISHES. THE FOLLOWING NOTES, WITH A DESCRIPTION OF THE FAMOUS JAVANESE DISH, THE RIJST-TAFEL, WILL THEREFORE BE WELCOME

As curries are so appetising, and stimulating to jaded appetites in both hot and cold weather, they deserve some attention. They need not necessarily be very hot; what is required is a judicious blending of various condiments in such a manner as to obtain a delicate flavour, which too great a preponderance of chillies and peppers destroys. Any kind of fresh or cooked meat, poultry or game, vegetables, eggs and fish may be curried. The cooked meats only require heating through in a curry sauce made as follows : A Useful Sauce Curry —Required: loz. of margarine or dripping, 1 onion, 1 dessertspoonful of a good curry poAvder, f teaspoonful of finely-chopped green ginger, a pinch of powdered cinnamon, 2 cloves, 4 clove of garlic (if liked), salt, loz. of flour, 1 pint of stock, 1 apple. Melt the margarine, add the finely-chopped onion and fry until just beginning to brown. Add the flour and curry powder and blend well ; stir over gentle heat for five minutes. Remove the pan from the fire and stir in the stock gradually, mixing all smoothly. Return to the fire, add the garlic, chopped apple, ginger, cloves and cinnamon, stir until boiling, then cover the pan and simmer very gently until reduced to half a. pint. Put 2oz. of desiccated or freshlygrated eoeoanut into a basin, pour one gill of boiling water over, cover and leave for 20 minutes, then strain into the sauce. Add the cooked meat cut into dice, and reheat. Add a squeeze of lemon juice. Serve in a vegetable dish with boiled rice in a separate vegetable dish. Add chutney and a little grated coeoanut. Note. Poultry or game is usually cut into neat joints, which are reheated in the sauce. Eggs • are boiled hard, cut into slices, or left whole and reheated in the sauce. Dish in the centre of a border of boiled rice, and garnish with quarters of some of the eggs. Uncooked meats of any kind are cut into dice and added to the curry sauce as soon as it comes to the boil. Simmer very gently or the meat will be tough. The sauce must in this case simmer until the meat is cooked. Cooked vegetables, cut into neat shapes, may be heated through in the sauce and served with rice. Cooked haricots are excellent warmed

up in a rather thick curry sauce and served on squares of toast. Cooked bloaters, kippers, or Pindon haddock warmed in curry sauce and served on toast make a delicious breakfast or luncheon dish. How to Prepare the Rice The flavour of rice will be much improved if it is washed in hot water before it is cooked. Rice that is to be served with curry, or used as a vegetable, should be cooked in water to which lemonjuice has been added, one teaspoonful of juice being added to each quart of water. This will make the rice very white and help to keep the grains separate. In the East, in Southern India, Burma, and the Malay Straits it is customary to serve numerous small dishes with curries: many of these would not be procurable in New Zealand, such as Bombay duck (a dried fish), or chupatties (native bread), but orange slices, banana slices, peanuts, grated coeoanut, lemon, chillies, etc., are all suitable for the purpose. These extra flavouring’s should be served on small saucers and used according to individual taste. The ingenuity of the housewife will suggest other suitable extras of this nature. Curry in Excelsis In Java, where curry reaches its supreme height, over one hundred dishes of this nature are served, and a rijst-tafel (rice-table) is indeed a dish to delight an epicure. Here is a description of a real Javanese, rijst-tafel, culled from that fascinating book, “The Surgeon’s Log,” by J. Johnston Abraham : — The “rijst-tafel” is a thing to be approached with awe, and described with the gourmandising enthusiasm of a Sala. It is unique. There is nothing like it anywhere else— is the proud distinction of Java to have invented the “rijsttafel.” The returned Hollander thinks of it with longing retrospective memories; when seated in his beloved “Warmgestraat” restaurant, he remembers he can have it no more. It is the one thing the loss of which he deplores. Imagine a long, wide colonnaded loggia open on three sides, so that between the columns one could see scarlet, white, and purple flowering shrubs, -and the slender stems of the tropical palms in the garden

without. This was the dining-hall; and here, after the luxury of a hath, clad in spotless ducks, the “Old Man” and I found ourselves seated at a little table, assembled with some eighty to a hundred others, to partake of the mystery. First of all a waiter brought us each a mountainous plate of rice. This acts as the foundation, so to speak, of the meal. Chicken is added to this; and then the ceremony begins. First one waiter approaches, holding in his hands a big circular blue china tray, divided into a dozen or so compartments, each containing some different comestible. There were compartments with bits of fish, dry, shredded and raw, slices of duck, beef in little buttons, curries, ehutneys, spices, and eoeoanut chips. Waiter followed waiter in procession to our table. Each seemed to have an array of things different from his predecessor's : pickles, salted almonds, grated Parmesan, slices of egg, slices of fried banana, young palm-shootsthey kept on coming. Then there were the “sambals.” A “sambal” is anything made up fiery-hot with cayenne pepper — of buried liver kept till almost deliquescent, fish-roe, sweetbreads, mysterious things to which no name could be put. They kept on coming. Gargantuan Appetites The “Old Man” kept sampling each new supply; the people around seemed all to be doing likewise. It was immense, Gargantuan. “I shall die if I attempt to investigate any further,” I said in despair. “It’s a noble death,” said the “Old Man” cheerfully, as he helped himself to the twentiethor was it the thirtieth? dish. All this had to be eaten with a spoon and fork; and towards the end I gave up in despair. The “Old Man” went on steadily. “You get used to it in time,” he said. Everyone else seemed, indeed, to be quite used to it; but eventually I bad to strike. To my astonishment, however, a course of meat, and salad followed, which the habitues attacked with renewed vigour. This in its turn was succeeded by dessert and coffee. o o o A useful hint to know is that the hot flavour that curry sometimes leaves in the mouth may be removed by eating a banana.