Mulligatawny Soup

I made some celery and red pepper soup which sounded as if it would be delicious but in fact it was rather uninteresting – even though there was onion, garlic, stock, plenty of freshly ground pepper and all the things which normally add depth of flavour. I was looking through another old recipe book, this one, ‘The A! Cookery Book’ written by H.N.L – Helen N. Lawson, was published in 1901, and found some interesting sounding recipes. They will have to be adjusted to suit our taste, and what is available these days, and the quantities seem vast so will have to be reduced!

My mum’s favourite soup was Mulligatawny, it was so peppery it always made her eyes run but she loved it all the same:

Mulligatawny Soup

• 1 fowl or 1 rabbit or 2lbs veal, cut into small pieces
• 2 quarts stock
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 apples, copped
• 1 tbsp of curry powder
• 2 oz butter
• flour for thickening
• ½ pint cream
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• boiled Patna rice to serve

Before I share the method, the quantities seem so strange – that quantity of meat and stock, only one onion (unless it was very big) and two apples!

1. heat the butter in a stew pot and first fry the meat, then the onion and apples
2. mix the curry powder with a little stock, add it and the rest of teh stock to the meat
3. let it simmer for about 2 hours or until the meat drops off the bone
4. strain the soup and cut the meat into small pieces
5. thicken the soup with the flour, and heat the cream
6. add the cream, meat, lemon juice and season to taste with salt and pepper
7. serve and hand round teh rice instead of toast