RICE OR CHOWL
Rice is consumed by most European families at breakfast, tiffin, and
dinner. It is eaten at breakfast with fried meat, fish, omelet,
country captain, or some other curried dish, and, being invariably
followed by toast and eggs, jams, fruit, one coonkee which
contains about as much as an ordinary breakfast-cup, or say half a
pound, will always be ample for four tolerably hearty consumers. There
are two sizes of coonkees, large and small: reference is here made
to the small coonkee, well filled. The quantity, however, of raw
rice for a party of four should not exceed half a pound.
The rice at dinner is usually preceded by soup, fish, roast, and made
dishes.
The best or generally approved qualities of rice for table use are
known as the bhaktoolsee, the banafool, the bassmuttee, and
cheeneesuckur. In purchasing these, or indeed any other approved
quality, care must be taken to avoid new rice and what is called
urruah, which latter has been put through some process of boiling,
or damped, and then dried. Both are considered unwholesome for general
daily consumption, and few Indians will use them.
Good rice when rubbed in the palm of the hand, and cleared of dust,
will appear of a bright and nearly transparent yellowish colour;
whereas the urruah will be found of a dull whitish hue, and the
grain streaked and speckled with white powder, which crumbles on the
application of a needle's point.
The price of rice, like other commodities, varies according to its
plenty or scarcity in the market. After the cyclone of October, 1864,
and again of November, 1867, the price of the bhaktoolsee and the
banafool, which are fine, large, stout-grain rice, without being
coarse, ruled at from eight to nine seers per rupee, and the
bassmuttee and the cheeneesuckur at from seven to eight seers per
rupee. The rice used by the poorest classes of the native population
is of a very coarse description and incredibly cheap: within six weeks
after the cyclone of November, 1867, it was readily procurable at
twenty-five to thirty seers per rupee.
Rice is used in a variety of forms: it is boiled, made into
kitcheeree, pellow, puddings, blanc mange, cakes, bread, &c.
The bhaktoolsee, the banafool, and other stout-grain rice are the best
adapted for boiling. Boiled rice is called bhath.
The bassmuttee or basmati, cheeneesuckur, and all small and fine-grain rice are
selected for kitcheeree, pellow, and puddings for children's food, and
for invalids.
The urruah is used in some houses in ignorance, but for the most
part it is made into flour, and used for blanc mange, cakes, &c. The
flour is abundantly procurable in the Calcutta markets, and is largely
used by all native bakers in the making of bread.
Twenty-two to twenty-five seers of rice monthly, consuming it three
times a day, entertainments included, will be ample for a party of
four, allowing occasionally for a rice pudding.
It is necessary to wash rice thoroughly in several waters before using
it, and a colander is very useful for draining away the water after
washing the rice.
1. Boiled Rice
Wash half a pound or a coonkeeful of rice, and put it to boil in a
large quantity of water, over a brisk fire. Immediately the rice
begins to boil, the water will bubble up to the surface of the pot and
overflow, carrying away quantities of scum and impurities. The cover
of the pot should now be kept partially open, and the rice stirred to
prevent an entire overflow of the water. On the subsiding of the water
or the bubbling, the fire should be reduced, until it is
satisfactorily ascertained that the grains of rice, without being
pappy, are quite soft, when the pot should be removed from the fire
and a quart of cold water be added. All the liquid, which is "conjee,"
should then be drained, and the pot replaced over a gentle charcoal
heat, to allow all moisture to evaporate, assisting the process by
occasionally shaking the pot, or stirring its contents gently with a
wooden spoon. Time to boil: half an hour.
The coonkee of rice when properly boiled will fill a good-sized curry
or vegetable dish. The rice will be found quite soft, and yet every
grain perfectly separate. Rice should never be cooked into a pap,
excepting it is required for very young children; and leaving the
grains hard or uncooked should be equally avoided.
A small pinch of pounded alum or /fitkerree is used by some cooks
with advantage to improve the whiteness of boiled rice.
2. Rice Conjee
The water in which rice is boiled should never be thrown away: it is
nutritious and fattening for all cattle, horses included, and may be
given daily to milch cows and goats with great advantage.
3. Rice Kheer
This is occasionally served upon the breakfast-table as a treat, but
few Europeans care for it. It is made as follows:--Thoroughly boil one
coonkee or half a pound of the bassmuttee or the cheeneesuckur rice,
then drain the water away, add two cups of pure cow's milk, and put
over a slow fire. As the rice begins to absorb the milk, two or three
small sticks of cinnamon are put in, with one tablespoonful and a half
to two tablespoonfuls of fine-quality white sugar. On the milk being
entirely absorbed, the kheer is either turned out upon a dish and
eaten hot, or put into a buttered mould, served up in shape, and eaten
cold.
Kheer is sometimes cooked or boiled in milk only, but the foregoing
recipe is supposed to be that more generally approved.
4. Pish-Pash
Pick and wash in several waters a coonkee or half a pound of the
bassmuttee or other fine-grain rice; add to it, cleaned and cut up, a
chicken, some sliced ginger, sliced onions, a few bay-leaves, some
peppercorns, a few hotspice, a dessertspoonful of salt, one chittack
or two ounces of butter, and water sufficient to cover the whole.
Simmer over a slow fire until the chicken becomes perfectly tender and
the rice quite pappy. Serve up hot. This is considered a most
excellent and nutritious meal for invalids.