CLEAR MULLIGATUNNY.
The object in a CLEAR MULLIGATUNNY is to present a bright, sparkling consommé of the colour of clear turtle, with a decided flavour of mulligatunny, and slightly peppery. Now, if you try to communicate the flavour with ready-made curry powder or paste, in which there is a certain quantity of turmeric, you will experience considerable difficulty in getting your soup bright and clear. Pounded coriander-seed, too, is oily, and would probably cause trouble. So the easiest method is to put a muslin bag containing the condiments in seed form into the soup-kettle with the vegetables, and to remove it as soon as the broth is satisfactorily impregnated with the wished-for flavour. The pepperiness is best imparted with a few drops of tabasco as a finishing touch, or of chilli vinegar if tabasco be not available.
The following proportions will, I think, be found satisfactory as far as the flavouring is concerned:—half an ounce of coriander-seed, a quarter of an ounce of cummin-seed, a quarter of an ounce of fenugreek, half an ounce of cardomoms, a clove of garlic, a dozen black peppercorns, and the finely peeled rind of a lemon with one bay leaf. All should be put into a muslin bag, without pounding or bruising, boiled with the soup, and removed as soon as the flavour is satisfactory. These quantities are estimated for about three pints of clear consommé; but as tastes vary in the matter of flavouring they can obviously be slightly altered at discretion.
I would abstain from the use of all ordinary spices for fear of disturbing the flavour derived from the curry stuff. The soup itself—ordinary beef, veal, or chicken broth—must be clarified with meat, as explained in Chapter IV. Clear ox-tail thus flavoured is well-known in London Club-land under the name of queue de bœuf à l’Indienne.
A stock made from fish and vegetables makes a capital basis for mulligatunny whether clear or thick. A cod’s head makes a good broth, and a pound of fish cuttings also. Ordinary fish