454 DR. CHASE'S RECIPES. 



table-spoonful or more of g7iee (the word used in India for butter, but drip- 

 pings, or even lard, my informant, Mrs. Bronson, says is often used), sprink- 

 ling over the onion, 1 tea-spoonful of currie powder (which see). When the 

 onion is nicely browned put in the jointed chicken, and salt sufficient, and put 

 on a tea-spoonful more of the currie powder, and fry until nicely browned; 

 then pour on sufficient hot water (see in remarks that milk, or the milk of cocoa- 

 nuts may be used) to cover the chicken, and stew (covered) until perfectly ten- 

 der. [Some of the native cooks boil the chicken tender before frying in the 

 currie, but my informant says this is not the best way.] Serve with plain boiled 

 rice, either in separate dishes, or, preferably, put the boiled rice on the platter, 

 pushing it out around the edge, then ix)ur the currie into the middle, the white- 

 ness of the rice making fine contrast with the browned currie, — Indian Domes- 

 tic Economy and Cookery. 



Remxirks. — Young mutton, lamb, veal, and fish, when cut into suitable 

 pieces, Mrs. Bronson informs me, treated every way the same as chicken, makes 

 an equally nice currie, and are more frequently used as such in India than 

 chicken; but we Americans think there is nothing equal to chicken. This lady 

 gives me the plan of cooking the rice in India, and the use of the water in 

 which it is cooked, as follows: 



To Boil the Rice India Fashion.— Wash it through 3 or 4 waters. 

 Have plenty of boiling water in a large kettle, put in the rice and boil very 

 briskly until tender; then pour in a cup of cold water, and pour into a colander; 

 when well drained, return to the kettle to steam a short time to dry out the sur- 

 plus water; then serve on the platter, or separate dish, as above. 



The rice water poured off is, says this lady, the best kind of starch, and is 

 used for that purpose by the washermen — men in India doing the washing 

 wholly. What a blessed thing it would be for some of the over -worked women 

 of our country if their husbands had to do the washing, instead of spending 

 their time, and often the money their wives have earned by washing, for 

 whiskey! How long shall it continue? 



The Milk of Cocoanuts is often used in India, says our informant, 

 and I think it would be very nice here, as well as there, instead of the water or 

 milk in which, or with which, to cook the currie, whether it be chicken, veal, 

 lamb, or fish; and they also scrape out the meat of the nut, having a tool for 

 that purpose much like a scraper to remove letters from a box or barrel by ship- 

 pers, except that the edge is rounding to fit the inside of the nut, and has sharp 

 teeth like a saw, which makes the pulp fine and fit to mix into the gravy of the 

 currie. Such a tool could be very easily made by an American blacksmith, 

 taking him a cocoanut that he might get the shape for the toothed edge and 

 knowing what it was to be used for. 



At a subsequent time, while in Eaton Rapids, I was invited to take tea with 

 Dr. Bronson, that I might partake of a currie prepared as above, by his wife 

 and an Indian gentleman, who had been several years in the University at Ann 

 Arbor, qualifying himself as a physician to go back to his country for the good 

 of his countrymen. He understood Indian cookery, and between them they 

 made a most excellent currie; and although it was pretty warm — I might say 



