Delicious Curry Soup

Delicious Curry Soup is a traditional Anglo-Indian recipe from the 1860s for a classic soup of chicken in a beef stock with spices, tamarind, onions and curry leaves. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic Anglo-Indian version of: Delicious Curry Soup.

prep time

20 minutes

cook time

15 minutes

Total Time:

35 minutes

Additional Time:

(+40 minutes soaking)

Serves:

Rating:

Tags : Curry Spice Recipes Chicken Recipes Fusion Recipes British Recipes

This is a traditional Anglo-Indian recipe redacted from the volume THE INDIAN COOKERY BOOK: A Practical Handbook to The Kitchen in India (author unknown), published by: WYMAN & CO., HARE STREET CALCUTTA circa 1869.
.

Original Recipe

110.—Delicious Curry Soup

Prepare a strong beef soup; slice some onions, and cut up a chicken; take curry condiments as
directed above, omitting the coriander and cumin seed; melt two chittacks or four ounces of ghee;
fry and set aside the sliced onions, then fry the condiments, add the cut-up chicken, and fry that
also. In a part of the beef soup boil a spoonful of tamarind, so as to separate the stocks and stones;
strain and stir it into the fried chicken. After a while add the remainder of the beef soup, with half a
dozen kurreah fool leaves, and the friend onions; close up the pot, and continue to simmer the
whole until the chicken is quite tender. Serve up hot.

108.—Mulligatawny Soup

Prepare a shin of beef soup as above, omitting the sauce, wine, and white of egg; set the soup aside.
Take a full-sized curry chicken; cut it up into sixteen or eighteen pieces, and wash them thoroughly.
Warm a pot and melt it into two chittacks or four ounces of ghee; fry in it some finely-sliced onions,
and set aside. Then fry in the melted ghee the following condiments, &c.:—Four tspfuls of
ground onions, one tspful of ground turmeric, one tspful of ground chilies, half a
tspful of ground ginger, a quarter of a tspful of ground garlic, half a tspful of
roasted and ground coriander-seed, and a quarter of a tspful of roasted and ground
cumin-seed.

Modern Redaction

This soup is very much the 'Anglo' end of Anglo-Indian. Basically beef stock with onion and curry spices that's used to cook chicken and which, unusually for this book, is finished with curry leaves.

Ingredients:

500g chicken portions
1l strong beef stock
2 onions, finely sliced
90g ghee
1 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp chilli powder
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 garlic clove, pounded to a paste
1/2 tsp toasted coriander seeds
1/4 tsp toasted and ground cumin seeds
4 tbsp tamarind pulp
6 curry leaves

Method:

Place a curry pan over high heat. When hot, reduce to medium-high. Add the chicken pieces and fry for about 8 minutes, until nicely browned all over. Remove with tongs and set aside.

Add the onion to the ghee and fry for 6 minutes, until soft and turning golden brown. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside. Add the spices and fry for 2 minutes more, until aromatic.

Return the chicken to the pan, stir to coat in the spices then pour in the beef stock. Bring to a simmer, cover the pan and cook for 30 minutes, or until the chicken is tender.

After 20 minutes, remove a ladleful of the stock and stir in a bowl with the tamarind pulp. Put in a pan, bring just to a boil then pass through a fine-meshed sieve. Pour this into the main soup and add the curry leaves and fried onions.

Return to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes more.

At this point you can strip the chicken meat from the bones and return to the soup or you can keep the chicken pieces whole.

Turn ino a warmed serving dish and bring to the table.

Find more Victorian Recipes Here and more Curry Recipes Here. For the original version of The Indian Cookery book see my The Indian Cookery Book main page.