Barkly Mount Eagle Madras Curry

Barkly Mount Eagle Madras Curry is a traditional Scottish recipe (from the 1820s), based on an anonymous hand-written recipe book kept by a member of the Barkly of Mount Eagle Family, for a classic Scoto-Indian curry of stewed fowl in a Madras curry powder with onion that's finished with cream and lemon juice. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic British version of: Barkly Mount Eagle Madras Curry.

prep time

20 minutes

cook time

45 minutes

Total Time:

65 minutes

Serves:

6

Rating:

Tags : CurrySpice RecipesChicken RecipesFowl RecipesMilk RecipesScottish Recipes

My researches into historic Anglo-Indian recipes turned up this recipe both for Madras curry powder and a curry using it from the 1820s. Call it a Scoto-Indian recipe.

This is a really early Scottish recipe for curry powder and a fowl curry sourced from an Anonymous hand-written recipe book kept by a member of the Barkly of Mount Eagle Family. The recipe is traditionally dated to the 1820s. The book itself is contained in the National Library of Scotland under Library reference: Acc.9907/18]. It has recently been digitised, but this is the only curry recipe:

Original Recipe

Madras Curry Powder — by J–

7 ounces of coriander seeds
6 " of black pepper
1 " of Cayenne
6 " of Turmeric
1 " of cummin seeds

Receipt for making Curry
Take a quarter of a pound of butter, on onion cut in thin slices and three cloves of garlic shred very fine – cut up one fowl & put it in the stewpan with these ingredients & let it stew for half an hour taking care that it does not burn — Then take two tablespoons full of curry powder & three of flour mix them with one quart of water put it in the stewpan with the fowl and let the whole stew an hour longer. Then put to it half a pint of new milk & just before it is served up add the juice of one lemon.
&nbs;Mr David Esq^r

What you end up is an early, slightly soupy Madras-type curry. It should be noted that the first commercial curry powders came to Edinburgh in 1789 and was sold by John Caird, purveyor of foods to the Edinburgh elite. It was marketed in the 'Edinburgh Evening Courant', 1789.

Modern Redaction:

Ingredients:

115g butter
1 fowl (chicken, guinea hen, pheasant etc) cut into serving-sized portions
1 onion, peeled and thinly sliced
3 garlic cloves, very thinly sliced
2 tbsp Madras curry powder (see below)
3 tbsp plain flour
1l water
300ml fresh whole milk
Juice of 1 lemon

For the Madras Curry Powder:
100g ground coriander seeds
85g ground black peppercorns
15g cayenne pepper
85g ground turmeric
15g ground cumin seeds

Method:

For the curry powder, simply mix all the ingredients together and store in an air-tight jar (it will keep for up to 2 months).

In a bowl, mix together 2 tbsp of the curry powder with 3 tbsp plain flour then set aside.

Place a large stockpot over medium heat. When hot melt the butter then add the fowl pieces. Stir-fry in the butter for about 5 minutes until nicely coloured all over then add the onion and garlic. Reduce the heat to low, then cover and stew the ingredients for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally to ensure they do not burn.

At the end of this time, mix the curry powder and flour to a smooth paste with 60ml (4 tbsp) water then mix this into a jug of 1l water. Pour this mixture over the fowl and onions, stirring to combine.

Bring to a simmer, cover the pan and simmer gently until you have a thick gravy. Now beat in the milk until smooth, bring to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes, or until heated through and thickened to your liking.

Stir in the lemon juice and serve accompanied by rice.