"I'm particularly fond of mulligatawny soup, James."

The word "mulligatawny" is a worn-down version of a Tamil phrase: "molagu tunni" -- "pepper water". The pepper in question isn't the kind ground from peppercorns: the Tamils meant chilies.

Originally this wasn't even a soup, but a sauce or condiment intended for ladling over rice. It was also originally a vegetarian mixture -- not much in it but chilies, water, and the occasional passing vegetable. Other non-vegetarian Tamils got in the habit of adding other ingredients such as salty dried fish and tamarind juice or similar sour "sharpeners" to balance the salt.

Eventually the British arrived, and during the Raj period molagu tunni started turning up on British tables as a luncheon dish: not over rice, but as a soup, with a little rice sometimes added to the soup at the end of the process as a nod toward its origins. However, as the 1800s progressed, the soup started going through a myriad of changes as many British-influenced cooks adapted the recipe to their own tastes. Some of the writers of the period, including the redoubtable Colonel Kenney-Herbert (who wrote his food columns as "Wyvern" in the mid- to late-1800s), began to complain that there were now so many versions of the soup, without being distinguished by different names, that even though you were being offered "Mullaghee-tawny" there was no knowing exactly what was in it any more.

Over time the variations began to settle down, however, as the soup made its way back to the British Isles as part of the birth of the longtime British love affair with Indian food. These days mulligatawny soup is most likely to contain chiles, onions and curry powder, is normally based on a meat stock, and the meat involved will normally be either chicken or lamb. The lamb seems a little more unusual, which is a shame: mulligatawny made with lamb has a deeper, richer flavor than the chicken kind.

In this case, it's the rest of Miss Sophie's dinner that gives us a hint of which way to swing. She's already having chicken as her main course. We have to assume that downstairs from Miss Sophie and James there's a Cook somewhere, and bearing the poultry course in mind, Cook would not be so careless as to offer a soup that also had chicken in it. So the version we're describing here is a lamb mulligatawny. (If you really don't like lamb, go ahead and swap in an equivalent amount of chicken. We made it both ways, and you can see the image of the chicken mulligatawny at the bottom of this article.) Our recipe follows guidelines set out by Colonel Kenney-Herbert in his Culinary Jottings for Madras, which remains one of the best cookbooks and guides to the Indian food of the Raj ever written*.

Ingredients:

• 1 pound / 450g of lean lamb (from the neck end: "lamb chop" lamb, not stewing lamb) or chicken breast
• 1 quart / liter vegetable or meat stock, according to your preference: vegetable or chicken stock if you're using chicken in the soup, beef stock (or lamb stock if you can get it) for lamb
• 1 large or two small onions, chopped small
• 1/3 cup butter, clarified (instructions on clarifying below)

For the spice mixture:

• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon peppercorns
• 1/2 to 1 teaspoon chili flakes
• 1 teaspoon fenugreek seed
• 1 teaspoon coriander seed

To finish:

• 1/4 cup heavy cream or double cream

You might want to prepare your clarified butter shortly before starting the main food prep. Here's how to make it:

On the stovetop: Melt the butter slowly. When melted, pour into a tall, relatively narrow container. In the microwave: Put the butter into a small microwave-suitable container, as tall and narrow as possible. Cover it with a loose lid or a little clingfilm (pierced) to keep it from spattering: microwave for 30 seconds or so.

Let the butter stand. Shortly, no matter which way you prepared it, you will find that the butter has settled into two layers: a clear layer of clarified butter floating on top of a milky layer of the milk solids from the butter. You are only going to be using the top layer.

To prepare your meat: if you're using lamb, remove any bones and trim the lamb of fat before cutting it into dice of between 1/4 inch and 1/2 inch wide. If you're using chicken, dice the chicken as above.

Now prepare the spices. Heat a dry frying pan and add the whole spices: stir them well until they start to become fragrant. Add the ground cumin last. Stir until it becomes warm, but be careful not to scorch the spices -- if they begin to smell at all acrid, remove the pan from the heat immediately and get the spices out of the pan immediately to stop the toasting process.

Grind them in a mortar and pestle until very fine (or you can use a spice grinder if you have one. We use our coffee grinder, but make sure you clean it out immediately and thoroughly, or your next cup of coffee is going to taste extremely weird.)

Heat a heavy pot or wok over medium heat and add half the clarified butter. When this heats up, add the chopped onion and saute until translucent. When they reach this point, scoop the onions out of the pot or wok and put them aside. They'll be added back in shortly.

Add the rest of the clarified butter to the pot or wok. When this has heated up, add the ground spices and stir immediately and constantly, lowering the heat. The spices will dissolve into the clarified butter to make a thick paste. Cook this for a few minutes over low heat, again watching carefully to make sure they don't burn or scorch.

After a few minutes, add the diced meat and stir well so that it's al coated with the spice paste. Add the sauteed onions to the mixture and again stir well so that the spice mixture coats everything evenly. Turn up the heat for about thirty seconds and add the vegetable or meat stock: then immediately reduce the heat again, cover the pot or wok and allow to simmer on medium-low heat for 30 minutes.

At the half-hour point, test the meat for doneness and tenderness: if you prefer it a little more tender, simmer for another 15-20 minutes. Check the seasoning and add salt if necessary. (This "salt check" should always happen last, as different stock and stock cube formulations contain widely differing amounts of salt, and your soup might not need any more salt than it already has in it.)

Before serving, the last thing to go in is the cream. You can either stir all the cream into the whole pot of soup, or swirl it separately into each diner's bowl.

Serves four.

"I think we'll have sherry with the soup..."

Sherry sometimes winds up in mulligatawny soup, but we didn't elect to put it in our recipe since we knew already what Miss Sophie intended to drink in company with her soup. To balance the spiciness of the soup, you will want a dry sherry rather than a sweet one -- and the dryer, the better. Avoid sweet, "cream", or blended sherries. A fino or manzanilla would be ideal: an amontillado would be even better if you can lay your hands on a bottle from a source you trust.

Mulligatawny soup made with chicken

*The edition we've linked to is a facsimile of the complete 1885 edition, a trade paperback from Prospect Books, and worth seeking out either in its newer printing or an older one from AbeBooks or another used book retailer. The 2011 Penguin edition is not the whole work, but a condensation, and useless for the serious cook or anyone who wants to enjoy the Colonel in full flight. He's an opinionated old bird, and extremely funny.

The courses served at Miss Sophie's 90th Birthday dinner, and the recipes for them:

• "Sherry with the soup": Miss Sophie's Mulligatawny Soup
• "White wine with the fish": Miss Sophie's Haddock with Maitre d'Hotel Sauce
• "Champagne with the bird": Miss Sophie's Poulet roti
• "Port with the fruit": The traditional British fruit plate

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