OSTREAD^ . OYSTER. 157 



grated or rasped fine, put this into the stew-pan with a 

 few sour tamarinds (if they are to be obtained, if not, a 

 sour apple chopped). Let the whole simmer over the 

 fire until the apple is dissolved, and the cocoa-nut very 

 tender; then add a strong thickening made of flour 

 and water, and sufficient salt, as a currie will not bear 

 being salted at table. Let this boil up for five minutes. 

 Have ready also a vegetable marrow, or part of one, 

 cut into bits, and sufficiently boiled to require little or 

 no further cooking. Put this in with a tomato or two ; 

 either of these vegetables may be omitted. Now put 

 into the stew-pan the oysters, with their own liquor, 

 and the milk of the cocoa-nut, if it be perfectly sweet ; 

 stir them well with the former ingredients ; boil the 

 currie, stew gently for a few minutes, then throw in 

 the strained juice of half a lemon. Stir the currie from 

 time to time with a wooden spoon, and, as soon as the 

 oysters are done enough, serve it up, with a corre- 

 sponding dish of rice on the opposite side of the table. 

 This dish is considered at Madras the ne plus ultra of 

 Indian cookery."* 



ft To Steiv Oysters. — Take the oysters clean from their 

 liquor. Let the liquor stand till it is clear ; then put a 

 little of it to the oysters, and stew them ; then put 

 to them a little white wine, a little cream, a little 

 lemon-juice, and a bit of butter ; shake them together, 

 then serve/'f 



i( American Box Stew. — For six people open six doz^u 

 of oysters, put them in a basin with their own liquor. 

 Place in a stew-pan a pint and a half of milk and a 

 quarter of a pound of butter, pepper and salt to taste ; 



* Miss Acton's ' Modern Cookery Book,' taken from ' Magazine of 

 Domestic Economy.' f MS. Book. 



