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Oysters a L'Indienne
Have in a saucepan half pint boiling water. Plunge in twenty-four fairly good-sized, freshly opened oysters with all their liquor. Season with half teaspoon salt and let boil for five minutes. Drain them and add them to the curry sauce. Let the whole boil for three minutes. Arrange a rice as in No. 113 around a hot dish, crown shape. Pour the oysters in the centre of the dish and serve.
A straightforward curried oyster dish from the era when "à l'Indienne" on a menu meant nothing more specific than curry powder in the sauce. One instruction needs overturning outright.
- The cooking time is the problemFive minutes of boiling followed by three more in the sauce will turn two dozen oysters into rubber. Poach them in the salted water only until the edges ruffle, about one to two minutes, then finish them in the hot curry sauce off the heat or at a bare simmer for another minute.
- Save the poaching liquorThe half pint of water plus the oyster liquor is the most flavourful thing in the recipe, and the original throws it away at the draining step. Reduce it and stir it into the curry sauce to loosen and season it.
- Half a pintOne cup in American measure. If you are working from a British edition of the period, a pint is 20 fl oz, so half a pint would be nearer 1 1/4 cups; the recipe itself gives no indication which measure is intended.