KURMA OR QUOREMA CURRY

This, without exception, is one of the richest of Hindoostanee curries, but it is quite unsuited to European taste, if made, according to the original recipe, of which the following is a copy:—

51.—Quorema Curry, Plain

Take two pounds of mutton, one pound of tyre or dhye, two chittacks of garlic, one dam of cardamoms, four chittacks of bruised almonds, four mashas of saffron, the juice of five lemons, one pound of ghee, four chittacks of sliced onions, one dam of cloves, one chittack of pepper, four chittacks of cream, and a quarter of a teaspoonful of ground garlic.

The following is the recipe of the quorema curry usually put on a gentleman’s table:—Two chittacks and a half or five ounces of ghee, one cup or eight ounces of good thick tyre, one teaspoonful of ground chilies, four teaspoonfuls of ground onions, one teaspoonful of coriander-seed, six small sticks of ground cinnamon, two or three blades of lemon-grass, one teaspoonful and a half of salt, a half teaspoonful of ground ginger, a quarter of a teaspoonful of ground garlic, eight or ten peppercorns, four or five ground cloves, five or six ground cardamoms, two or three bay-leaves, a quarter of a cup of water, the juice of one lemon, and twelve large onions cut lengthways into fine slices.

Take two pounds of good fat mutton, and cut it up into pieces nearly one inch and a half square. Warm the ghee, fry in it the sliced onions, and set aside; then fry all the ground condiments, including the ground hot spices. When quite brown, throw in the mutton and salt, and allow the whole to brown, after which add the tyre, the hot spices with peppercorns and bay-leaves, the lemon-grass, the water, and the fried onions finely chopped; close the pot, and allow it to simmer over a gentle coal fire for about an hour and a half or two hours, by which time the kurma will be quite ready. The blades of lemon-grass are never dished up.

52.—Kid Quorema

Cut up a fore-quarter or a hind-quarter of a kid into eight or ten pieces, and cook it exactly as directed in the foregoing recipe. This is rather preferred to mutton quorema.

53.—Fowl Quorema

Take a young full-ground tender fowl; cut it up as for an ordinary curry, cook it with all the condiments in the proportions given, and observe all the directions laid down in recipe No. 51.

N.B.—Most Europeans give the preference to the fowl quorema.