“Meanwhile their wives are busy with the daily task of preparing curry—no fiery curry-powder, but a delicious compound of many pleasant vegetables, seasoned with pepper, turmeric, green ginger, chillies, &c., but above all, made fresh and wholly different every morning, and served with cocoa-nut, prawns, cucumbers, and all manner of other excellent dainties, served in different dishes, as we serve vegetables, forming combinations to rejoice the heart of an epicure. The principal glory of a Singhalese cook lies in the endless variety of his curries; a very desirable characteristic in a dish which forms a necessary conclusion to every meal, and on which you soon learn to count as a necessity. Every man, woman, and child, down to the very smallest, lives on curry and rice, indeed we had a theory that all domestic animals were fed on it. ‘To eat rice’ is the recognised form of describing every meal, and wonderful is the amount consumed by each individual.”
A cook of roughly the same moment, setting down the same dish.
(_Soyer's Recipe_.) 1348. INGREDIENTS.--1 lb. of the best Carolina rice, 2 quarts of water, 1-1/2 oz. of butter, a little salt. _Mode_.--Wash the rice well in two waters; make 2 quarts of water boiling, and throw the rice into it; boil it until three-parts done, then drain it on a sieve. Butter the bottom and sides of a stewpan, put in the rice, place the lid on tightly, and set it by the side of the fire until the rice is perfectly tender, occasionally shaking the pan to prevent its sticking. Prepared thus, every grain should be separate and white. Either dish it separately, or place it round the curry as a border. _Time_.--15 to 25 minutes. _Average cost_, 7d. _Sufficient_ for 2 moderate-sized curries. _Seasonable_ at any time.
Sources: The passage is from C. F. (Constance Frederica) Gordon Cumming, Two happy years in Ceylon, free to read in full at Project Gutenberg. The recipe is from Beeton, The Book of Household Management of 1861, also free in full. Both are in the public domain in the United States. The binding above is ours — burgundy cloth, amphora stamp.