Mikado - Vincent Price

This is an adaptation of a recipe from the Victorian American volume of Vincent Price's collection, "A National Treasury of Cookery," which I recently acquired. As I was looking through the book, this recipe caught my eye because I am an unabashed Gilbert and Sullivan fan. :) As the G&S show of "The Mikado" opened in 1885 at the Savoy Theatre in London, I imagine that this dish (which is rather not very Japanese, but ah well) must've been a Victorian homage to the production. It is a dish I can easily imagine a Brit in India in the 19th century enjoying. :) As far as how it tastes - it's delicious! It's kind of like a combination between Chile Verde and curry. It's not pretty when it's done, but it IS very tasty. It's even better then next day, as leftovers, when the flavors have had the chance to meld in the refrigerator!

• Ready In: 1 hr 10 mins
• Serves: 4-6

Ingredients

• 1  tablespoon butter
• 2  teaspoons olive oil
• 1  boneless skinless chicken breast, diced
• 1⁄2 lb  lean veal (we used pork) or 1⁄2 lb pork, diced (we used pork)
• 1⁄2 lb  lean lamb (or ground, see note) or 1⁄2 lb  mutton, diced (or ground, see note)
• 1  quart  unsalted chicken stock
• 1  cup  minced onion
• 1  cup  minced green bell pepper
• 2  tablespoons mild curry powder
• 1  teaspoon  dried  herbes de provence, in a tea ball
• 1  teaspoon salt, to taste
• 1⁄2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
• 1⁄2 cup  uncooked rice

Directions

1. Melt together the butter and olive oil in a large sauté pan over medium high heat, then add the diced meats and cook while stirring for 5 minutes; drain of excess fat, if any.
2. Add most the broth (reserve about 1/4 cup), onion, and green pepper.
3. Combine the curry powder with the reserved broth, then stir mixture into the broth mixture.
4. Add the Herbes de Provence contained in a tea ball, salt, and freshly ground pepper, and simmer uncovered over medium heat for 30 minutes.
5. Remove the herbs in the tea ball, add the uncooked rice and simmer (still uncovered), stirring occasionally, for an additional 30 minutes (checking now and then to make sure you're not running out of liquid - if so, add a little broth).
6. Serve with cooked noodles (we served it over sautéed sherry asparagus and tofu).
7. Note: when we prepared this dish, the lamb we had at home was ground, so that's what we used - it worked just fine; also, the original recipe called for a "bouquet of herbs" with no specific herbs or amounts indicated, so I substituted the Herbes de Provence.
8. Note #2: the original recipe called for 2 quarts of broth and 3 tablespoons uncooked rice - as we prepared this dish, it simply didn't seem to work well and so we decreased the broth and increased the rice and it came out quite well.