Rijstafel (rice table)

Yield: 1 group

Measure Ingredient
2 cups Canned, unsweetened coconut
4 cups Whole milk
1 tablespoon Butter
½ cup Onion, chopped fine
2 \N Inches gingerroot, chopped
1 \N Garlic clove, chopped
1½ tablespoon Curry powder
1 cup Poultry stock
1 tablespoon Flour
1 tablespoon Cornstarch
3 cups Cooked and diced chicken, shrimp, veal, fish, sweetbreads and mushrooms
2 cups Boiled rice
\N \N Onion rings
\N \N Hard cooked eggs, sieved
\N \N Peanuts, grated
\N \N Coconut, grated
\N \N Relish
\N \N Chutney
\N \N Raisins
\N \N Kumquats
\N \N Bananas, halved and fried
\N \N Mixed pickles
\N \N Preserved ginger

Heat the milk but do not scald. Add the coconut and let stand 2 to 3 hours in a cool place.

Saute the chopped onion in the butter until light brown.

Add the chopped gingerroot, chopped garlic, and curry powder.

Strain the coconut from the milk and add the coconut to the curry mixture. Mix well.

Add the poultry stock to the cooled, strained milk. Mix 3 tablespoons of this mixture with the flour and cornstarch. Heat the remaining liquid and stir the starch paste into it. Cook the sauce, stirring steadily, until it is hot and thickened. Season to taste.

Place half the sauce in a double boiler. Add the coconut-curry mixture and stir. Add the cooked diced chicken, shrimp, fish, veal, sweetbreads and mushrooms and heat over -NOT IN- boiling water.

Heat the remaining sauce in the top of another double boiler over -NOT IN- boiling water.

In preparing the boiled rice, it should be cooked until it is rather dry and flaky.

Place the rice in a serving bowl.

Remove the sauce and the coconut curry mixture from the heat and place each in a separate bowl. Place each of the remaining ingredients in its own bowl.

Start by passing the rice. Spread a generous portion on each plate.

This is the base or "Table". Pass the sauce containing the combined poultry, seafood, mushrooms and veal next. Spread a generous portion over the rice.

Follow with the other dishes in this sequence: Onion rings, sieved hard cooked eggs, grated peanuts, grated coconut, relish, chutney, raisins, preserved ginger, kumquats, halved fried bananas and mixed pickles.

Spread the desired amount of each on the plate over the preceding layer. Pass the extra heated sauce last. Pour sauce over the entire dish. Enjoy!

NOTE: You may add as many additional items to this dish as you wish so long as they work well with the coconut-curry sauce. Lamb, vegetables, most chicken dishes and the like do very well as part of a Rijsttafel.

Recipe submitted by Joel Ehrlich 08-02-95 on FIDO-Cooking. Typed in Meal-Master format by Arthur Cloninger, Huntington, WV.

Similar recipes