The White Butterfly of Phantomhive

Chapter 28: Curry Competition part 1

Very early the next morning, Sebastian was working hard in cooking curry in the kitchen. The other servants arrived shortly after and were mildly surprise to find him there. "Nnhuh? Sebastian, yer up awfully early." Baldroy says, a little drowsy, as Finnian and Mey-Rin greeted him a good morning. The servants approached him and Baldroy asks him, "What the heck are you makin' at this hour?"

"That would be curry." Sebastian says, not looking up from his cooking.

"Huh, ain't that a rare sight. What kind of curry?" Baldroy asks.

"With Prince Soma still in residence and all, I think perhaps chicken curry might be best." Sebastian said, looking through a curry cookbook. "Though I have not made it often in the past, since the young master is not fond of spicy foods.." After putting down the book and looking at the materials in front of him, Sebastian clapped his hands together and got started. "Now then."

To prepare a delicious curry, you chop the onions finely and sauté them in butter. Once the onions are cooked, add diced chicken, curry paste, curry powder, Bengali chutney, and lime and mango pickle to the sauté. Pour water over the sautéed chicken and let cook for one and half hours. Once the water has all but boiled away, add a dollop of cream and serve. And boom, it is completely. A British-style Bengali Chicken Curry.

"Waah! Looks yummy! Smells good too!"" Finnian said as he and the others gathered around Sebastian and the delicious Indian cuisine. "With a curry like this, that Agni feller doesn't stand a chance!" Baldroy said with confidence.

"Yuck!!" Soma said with disgust as he tries the chicken curry and rendered the whole table silent. Sebastian was in the middle of pouring Mei a cup of tea when he stopped and set the pot down on the table as he glances at the Prince. "Was it it not to your taste?" He asked.

Soma instantly flinches, scared that he has insulted Sebastian somehow and quickly explains himself to him. "I-it's not that...! It's just very different from the curry that I always eat in India, so, well...and this is goods in its own way...um....."

"It is fine. Please, continue." Sebastian tells him. Soma took a moment to calm down and composed himself. Giving a detailed critique. "First, the flavour is weak, and it has no aroma. Not to mention it's gritty, so the texture is rough on the tongue. This doesn't count as curry."

"How odd. Even after I used the best curry powder available." Sebastian said as he began to think what went wrong with the preparation.

"Curry powder? What is that?" Soma asked. In the current era, curry which Anglo-Indians brought back to their homeland upon their return, had taken firm root in British cuisine. But as the blending of spices was difficult for an amateur, the spices were ground and blended together and sold as prepackaged curry powder. Yes, "curry" of the kind that employed curry powder was peculiar to the cuisine of Great Britain alone.

"I've never seen anything like that in India, and Agni didn't use it either. At least as far as I know." Soma says. Yes, spices determine the colour and heat of curry, but what is most important is their flavour. When they aren't freshly ground their aroma evaporates. At my palace, I have masalchi dedicated to that task alone."

"So in other words, using something like curry powder, in which the spices have been ground up prior to being packaged and sold, is out of the question." Sebastian says, understanding Soma's point. Which in turn, creates a bit of another problem for them. They are in need of fresh spices of high quality in which West has the advantage of since he controls the distribution of his own company so it's easy for him to secure high-quality spices.

"I fear we are running short on time. Let us find ourselves some traders...." Sebastian began to say before they all remembered that a president of a trading company is dining with them at this very moment: Lau.