November 2, 1891.] THE TRDPlOAT- «Qil?imil-TDWST; 
some garlic, onions, green ginger, and salt should 
be pounded and mixed with the flour of gram or 
dhal ; to this tyre and turmeric should be added, and 
when sufficiently moist applied to the fish which 
should then be "fried in ghee 1 Surely this elaborate 
preparation would disguise any fish completely. If you 
want to Orientalise fish for a change, cvirry it, or serve 
it as mole. Filleting fresh-water fish is generally 
a wise proceeding. The Native cook performs the 
operation well, and you are thus protected as much 
as possible from swallowing bones, and the unpleasant- 
ness of catching one in your throat. All the trimmings 
which are left after this process has been carried 
out come in usefully for the stock required for the 
pie, stew, or sauce, as the case may be. 
The Indian murral (Tarn. Verarl) may be likened 
to the English jack, and be cooked in like manner. 
Ijet him be carefully killed, and cleaned as herein- 
before advised. Do not boil him if you can avoid it. 
If under two pounds in weight bake him, if bigger 
than that roast him on the spit. In either case he 
must be stuffed, pike-like, and this preparation can of 
course be varied at pleasure. Experience seems to 
shov/ that ordinary fish derive in cooking the great- 
est assistance from the essences of .s/ie?^-fish. Thus 
oysters, shrimps, prawns, lobster, crayfish, &c., are most 
valuable in sauces and stuffings. Out in a "tanky" 
district you often can procure quantities of little fresh- 
water shrimps and cray-fish. With these well cleaned 
you can compose a very tasty stuffing, using bread 
crumb, eggs, the minced shrimp, a little anchovy sauce 
to strengthen them, a pinch of mace, salt and pepper. 
Suet or butter in the proportion of one quarter (or 
one-third if you can spare it) of the whole preparation 
is most essential, because it preserves the moistiire 
within, so necessary to prevent the fish beinsr too dry. 
Tinned oysters, and the liquor with them, can of com-se 
be used instead of the fresh-water shell-fish, or with them 
if the fish be very large. Here is a good receipt for 
baking a murral. See that the fish is perfectly clean, 
and thoroughly dry before stiiffiiig it. Take sufficient 
bread crumbs to fill the fish nicely without overcrowd- 
ing, put them into a bowl, break into the bowl two, 
three, or more eggs according to the quantity of 
crumbs, which is of course decided by the size of the 
fish. The eggs when added should moisten the crumbs 
throughout. Add about a teaspoonful each of thyme 
and marjoram from the bottle, and enough chopped 
suet to represent one third, or not less than one 
quarter of the whole mixture, salt and pepper in 
proportion. Instead of suet, tinned butter can be 
used, or minced cooked fat bacon. Two or three 
anchovies, wiped free from oil, may be minced and 
added, or a slight allowance of anchovy sauce ; if the 
liver of the fish has been saved it should be minced, 
and put in also. In deciding the exact amounts of 
these ingredients you must be guided by discretion 
remembering that the crumbs give bulk, and the eggs 
cohesion ; that the suet, butter-, or fat provides the 
necessary internal basting, so to speak, and the herbs, 
seasoning, and anchovy, flavour. Having thoroughly 
blended the whole composition like a pudding, fill the 
■iiiurral with it carefully, sewing up the opening in 
which it is confined. If by chance you have made 
a little too much, the stuffing that is over can be 
divided into portions, cutlet-wise, and fried, to be 
served as a garnish. The fish having been thus pre- 
pared should now be set in the baking-dish (which 
should be well buttered) in a circular from, if liked, 
with its tail secured in its mouth ; and thus far our 
proceedings are complete. 
During the mixing of the stuffing and the arrange- 
ment of the fish, a broth should have been simmering 
on the tire made of fish trimmings, au oaion, some 
herbs, iVc Any fish that may be superfluous— (as- 
Humuig that several have been caught, and that after 
giving some away a few can be spared for the pur- 
pose-ought to be used in this stock. As already 
ineutioned a glass of chablis, sauterne, or hock, if 
by any chance available, should be thrown in; or if 
no light white wme can be given, a glass of claret, 
faihng that a sherry glass of vinegar. The stock is 
no r«iuircd in very large quantity; abfcut a pint and 
a halt,— that la to say an ordinary quart bottle ful,-- 
Will geuerftlly, unless (Uq fish l^c very largo, |jc fpmia 
enough. Use it in this manner: — Pour as much of 
it as will moisten the dish round the fish to a depth 
of about two inches. Put a little butter on the fish, 
and then set the dish in the oven. Baste it every 
now and then with its own liquor, and use your best 
endeavours to keep it moist. After about fifteen or 
twenty minutes' baking the fish will be done. Mix in 
a saucepan separately a roitx with half an ounce 
of butter and half an ounce of flour ; stir 
together over the fire for two minutes, then add 
a salt-spoonful of salt, a pinch of pepper, and a 
breakfast cupful of the fish stock previously made ; 
now empty the liquor that may remain in the baking- 
dish round the fish into this sauce, boil one minute, 
add half an ounce of butter and stir till it is melted. 
Put the murral carefully on a hot dish, pour the sauce 
over it., and serve. Be very careful in moving the 
fish : indeed, if you think that it may break during that 
operation, leave it alone, pour the sauce over it, and 
wrap a napkin round the baking-dish in which it should 
be served. 
If the fish be over threee pounds in weight it is 
well worth while to roast it. The preparations in re- 
gard to cleaning, drying, and stuffing are the same as 
those just described for baking. The operation of 
spitting, however, requires great care, for if care- 
lessly done, and the fish be at all over-roasted, the 
chances are that it will fall off the spit, and break to 
pieces. To guard against this catastrophe you should 
make a cradle for the fish in this way. — Take four 
strips of thinly split bamboo, cut them a little longer 
than the fish, lay them in rows four inches apart, and tie 
across them, at intervals of six inches, four tapes as 
in the following diagram: — ■ 
• 
1 
id 
3 
J 
— r 
i 
■1 
i 
■1 
1 
B 
■ 
t 
s 
S 
d 
n 
i 
1 
m 
f. 
1 
■ 
I 
1 
m 
! 
m 
The tapes, which are represented by the dotted lines, 
should be knotted to each strip of bamboo at the points 
of intersection. Thus we have a cradle large enough 
for a fish eighteen inches long, and a foot or a little 
more in girth. It is secured to the spit by the ends 
of the tapes, which are left over for that purpose. 
The arrangement is in principle something like the 
cradle which is placed round a horse's neck to prevent 
his tearing himself when under treatment for a wound. 
Having thus attached the fish securely to the spit the 
roasting should be conducted before a clear charcoal 
fire, and basting should be kept up continually. To 
facilitate this work, place a tin baking dish under the 
fish, put into it four ounces of butter, and when that 
has melted, a glass of vinegar; catch all the liquid 
that drops from the fish, and use this with the melted 
butter and vinegar for the basting. When done, detach 
the fish carefully, lay it in the hot dish prepared for 
it, and pour over it a sauce composed in the same 
way as that recommended for the baked murral. 
The recipes given for baking and roasting the 
■niurral can be applied to several other fish: — the va- 
rious carps and labeos, the wallagu attu (freshwater 
shark) A'c, but very large fish are better prepared in 
fillets than whole, the treatment of which must form 
part of another article. — Madras Mail. 
WONDEEFUL TREES. 
The subject of ivonderfv.l trees is an almost inex- 
haustible one, abounding in intn-est and ciulosity. 
In pur own ytatc iU'c fpuntl (ho mvst ftvwgus graves 
