CHAPTER VII
OMELETTES AND CURRIES
Omelette
Break two eggs into a basin, season with salt, pepper, minced parsley, and chives, etc., and beat these all together for about 1 minute. Melt 1 oz. of butter in an absolutely clean pan (it is best to keep a pan on purpose for omelettes), and when this smokes, pour in the eggs, and do not touch them for a few seconds, till the liquid has set a little at the bottom of the pan; tilt the pan a trifle to one side, and if there is a small puff of steam, lift the edge up carefully with a knife to allow as much of the liquid as possible to run underneath; repeat this till there is no more egg liquid left, and the top just set, slip a knife under the omelette, fold it over, and slip it at once on to a hot dish, and serve immediately. This can be varied, of course, to any extent, by, just before folding it over, slipping in any kind of vegetable mixture, such as mushrooms, chopped up and previously lightly fried in a little butter.
Potato Omelette
To 4 eggs add 2 tablespoonsful of very smoothly mashed potato, add a tablespoonful of cream, a small piece of butter, pepper and salt, whip all together and then fry as before.
Green Pea Omelette
Place between the omelette a few green peas, made very hot, and tossed in butter, salt and pepper.
Asparagus Omelette
Fold the omelette over a few cooked asparagus tops, which have been made hot.
Tomato Omelette
Make an ordinary omelette, and before serving pour this mixture into it. Take two or three tomatoes and cut them into pieces, cut an onion into very thin slices, melt a tablespoonful of butter into a saucepan and place the onion in it. Cook them, but do not brown, add pepper, salt and the pieces of tomato. Stir all together for 10 minutes, take out the mixture, pass it through a sieve, and return to the pan, thoroughly reheat and it is ready for use.
Cheese Omelette
Add an heaped-up tablespoonful of grated cheese to the ordinary omelette mixture, sprinkling some over it just before serving.
French Bean Omelette
Heat some cooked French beans in butter and place them between a plain omelette.
Recipes for omelette made with flour, anchovy, cheese, mushroom, and sardine omelettes will be found in Savouries Simplified, by Mrs. C. S. Peel.
Some Maigre Curries
There are, of course, many varieties of curry. The recipe for one of worth is given in my 10s. a Head Cookery Book, and I here add another, but before giving detailed recipes let us deal with the broad rules for curry making, the most important of all being—
Do not attempt to make curry in a hurry.
2 hours is the least in which you can make a vegetable curry worthy of the name, and it is far wiser to allow 3 or 4 hours.
Do not ask your cook to make curry on a day when she is very busy with other matters, for it will take an hour or more of undivided attention as well as a certain amount of attention throughout the time of cooking.
There is, however, no reason that curry should not be made the day before it is wanted, for it improves by keeping, and by being reheated.
A Delicious Vegetable Curry
Weigh 5 oz. of butter (or if economy must be studied, 3 oz. of clarified dripping, and 2 oz. of butter). Choose four medium-sized onions, and chop them very fine. Melt the butter in a stewpan and add the onions and cook them until they are of a deep golden brown, stirring often. Meanwhile, put 1 tablespoonful of curry powder in a saucer in the oven for 10 minutes, then mix it to a smooth paste with a little cream, or if this cannot be allowed, some milk, and add it to the onion mixture, and stir well. Cook slowly, stirring frequently for 2 hours in all. During this time the onions will become quite pulpy, and the butter like oil, and the colour of the mixture will slowly deepen to a rich mustard yellow. While this “ghee,” as it is called, is cooking, take 1 small vegetable marrow, cut in squares; ½ lb. of French beans, strung and broken in half; 2 large tomatoes, quartered; ½ a small cucumber, peeled and sliced; 1 small apple, peeled and cored and sliced; ½ a small carrot, sliced. Boil the vegetables as usual, cooking the larger and firmer longer than those of a more delicate kind. Make the curry mixture given above, and add the vegetables during the last ½ hour of cooking. Serve with a border of rice.
This recipe does not make a sloppy curry, but one in which the solid ingredients are coated with the thick sauce.
Other dishes, not properly curries though flavoured with curry powder, are often termed curry. They provide a quick and easy method of serving various materials. For these a curry sauce is needed.
Curry Sauce
Chop an onion and a few slices of apple finely and fry them in 2 oz. of clarified dripping or butter. Stir in ½ a dessertspoonful of curry powder and the same of flour. Salt to taste. Add ¼ pint of stock or milk, cook gently for 30 minutes, then put all through a sieve, add a few drops of lemon juice, and reheat.
Curried Cabbage
Take all the outer leaves off a young cabbage and boil it until it is half cooked. Drain it and chop it finely, place it in a pan with some curry sauce and simmer it gently for 1 hour. Serve in a border of boiled rice.
Curried Potatoes
Slice some hot boiled potatoes and pour over them a curry sauce.
Curried Macaroni
Boil the quantity of macaroni required until tender, drain it and cut it into pieces 1 inch in length. Place it in the curry sauce already described for 10 minutes, and serve in a rice border.
Lentil Curry
Take the cooked lentils (see page 47) and heat them in curry sauce. Serve very hot in a border of rice.
Haricot Bean Curry
Proceed as for Lentil Curry.