Curried Gravy

Modern cookery for private families · Acton, Eliza · 1845
Source
Modern cookery for private families
Status
success · extracted 12 days ago
Not a recipe
No
Ingredients (15)
For the base
To finish the gravy
For serving
Instructions (11)
  1. Slice onions (and optional garlic/eschalots) and fry gently in butter until equally colored a fine yellow-brown.
  2. Lift fried onions onto a sieve to drain.
  3. Place drained onions in a clean saucepan.
  4. Add gravy, grated cocoa-nut (and optional apple).
  5. Simmer softly for 30 to 45 minutes, or until onions are tender enough to be pressed through a strainer.
  6. Press the mixture through a strainer.
  7. Return the strained gravy to the saucepan and bring to a boil.
  8. Mix curry powder, flour, salt, and cream to a smooth batter.
  9. Add the batter to the boiling gravy.
  10. Simmer for 15 to 20 minutes.
  11. Add acid (chili vinegar or lemon juice) just before serving, especially if fruit was boiled in the gravy. If using fruit, blend the acid with arrow-root or flour first.
Original Text
CURRIED GRAVY. The quantity of onion, eschalot, or garlic used for a currie should be regulated by the taste of the persons for whom it is prepared; the 303very large proportions of them which are acceptable to some eaters, preventing others altogether from partaking of the dish. Slice, and fry gently in a little good butter, from two to six large onions (with a bit of garlic, and four or five eschalots, or none of either), when they are coloured equally of a fine yellow-brown, lift them on to a sieve reversed to drain; put them into a clean saucepan, add a pint and a half of good gravy, with a couple of ounces of rasped cocoa-nut, or of any of the other condiments we have already specified, which may require as much stewing as the onions (an apple or two, for instance), and simmer them softly from half to three quarters of an hour, or until the onion is sufficiently tender to be pressed through a strainer. We would recommend that for a delicate currie this should always be done; for a common one it is not necessary; and many persons prefer to have the whole of it left in this last. After the gravy has been worked through the strainer, and again boils, add to it from three to four dessertspoonsful of currie-powder, and one of flour, with as much salt as the gravy may require, the whole mixed to a smooth batter with a small cupful of good cream.[99] Simmer it from fifteen to twenty minutes, and it will be ready for use. Lobster, prawns, shrimps, maccaroni, hard-boiled eggs, cold calf’s head, and various other meats may be heated and served in it with advantage. For all of these, and indeed for every kind of currie, acid of some sort should be added. Chili vinegar answers well when no fresh lemon-juice is at hand. 99.  This must be added only just before the currie is dished, when any acid fruit has been boiled in the gravy: it may then be first blended with a small portion of arrow-root, or flour. Onions, 2 to 6 (garlic, 1 clove, or eschalots, 4 to 5, or neither); fried a light brown. Gravy, 1-1/2 pint; cocoa-nut, 2 oz. (3, if very young): 1/2 to 3/4 hour. Currie-powder, 3 to 4 dessertspoonsful; flour, 1 dessertspoonful; salt, as needed; cream, 1 small cupful: 15 to 20 minutes. Obs.-In India, curds are frequently added to curries, but that may possibly be from their abounding much more than sweet cream in so hot a climate.
Notes
—