Page:Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management.djvu/1795

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TYPICAL INDIAN DISHES
1611

stock until tender, then strain and reduce the stock by rapid boiling. Place the rice in a small pan, add 1 oz. of butter, the raisins and almonds, and make thoroughly hot. Serve the rice round the chicken, garnish with sections of egg, and serve some of the well reduced sauce separately.

Time.—2 hours. Sufficient for 4 or 5 persons. Cost, 3s. 6d.

3867.—PILAU OF FOWL.

Ingredients.—1 fowl, 1 Ib. of lean mutton, ½ a lb. of rice, 6 onions, ¼ of a lb. of ghee or butter, 12 black peppercorns, 10 cloves, 10 cardamoms, 2 blades of mace, 3 currypak leaves, ¾ of an oz. of green ginger, 5 quarts of cold water, 1 dessertspoonful of salt, hard-boiled eggs.

Method.—Slice the mutton, put it into a stewpan with 4 onions cut in halves, the water and salt, and bring to the boil. Skim if necessary, put in the fowl, cook gently until tender, then put aside until required. Let the contents of the stewpan continue to simmer until the liquor is reduced to ⅓ its original quantity, then strain and press the meat well so as to extract all the juices. Slice the remaining onions, fry them brown in ghee previously heated in a stewpan, then drain them from the fat. Re-heat the fat and fry the fowl, turning it frequently to equalize the cooking. When well browned remove it and fry the rice, which must be previously washed and thoroughly dried. Add the peppercorns, cloves, cardamoms, mace, currypak leaves, green ginger thinly sliced, a little salt if necessary, and as the butter becomes absorbed add gradually the liquor in which the fowl and meat were cooked. When the rice is tender, draw the stewpan aside, put in the fowl with the rice piled over and round it, and let it remain until some of the moisture has evaporated, leaving the rice swollen and moderately dry. Serve the fowl imbedded in rice, and garnished with hardboiled eggs cut in quarters.

Time.—3 hours. Sufficient for 7 or 8 persons. Average Cost, 4s. 6d.

3868.—PILAU OF MUTTON.

Ingredients.—2½ lbs. of lean mutton, 2 lbs. of rice, ½ a lb. of onions sliced, ¼ of a lb. of ghee or butter, 1 oz. of raisins stoned, 1 oz. of almonds blanched, 1 oz. of pistachio nuts blanched, 1 oz. of dried apricots sliced, ½ an oz. of green ginger thinly sliced, ¼ of a teaspoonful of ground cinnamon, ⅛ of a teaspoonful each of ground cloves, ground cardamoms, cumin seeds, and black pepper, 6 eggs, salt.

Method.—Mince ¼ of the meat finely, and cut the rest into slices convenient for serving. Put the sliced meat into a stewpan, add the onions and ginger, the coriander and 1 teaspoonful of salt, cover with cold water, cook very gently until the meat is tender, then strain off the stock. Meanwhile the rice should have been well washed, parboiled and drained; now put it into the stewpan with the stock and simmer