Skip to main content
Main

Curried Oysters

A curry of oysters simmered with coconut, tamarind, and tomatoes, served over rice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Coconut and tamarind match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 151 recipes. Both carry gamma-nonanolactone, which smells coconut, creamy. The science ↓

Curried Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Open the oysters into a basin, keeping their liquor.

  2. In a saucepan, melt 4 tablespoons of butter over medium heat.

Make the curry base

  1. Add the sliced onion and fry until rich brown.

  2. Stir in more butter and the curry powder, mixing well.

  3. Gradually add hot water or broth, cover, and bring to a boil.

  4. Add the grated coconut and chopped sour tamarinds or apple.

  5. Simmer until the apple dissolves and the coconut is tender.

  6. Mix in the flour and water thickening and season with salt.

  7. Boil for 5 minutes, then add the boiled vegetable marrow and tomatoes.

Finish and serve

  1. Stir in the oysters with their liquor and coconut milk.

  2. Gently stew for a few minutes, then add the lemon juice.

  3. Serve with rice on the side.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Coconut + tamarindtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together151 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

  2. Tamarind + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together137 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Onion + tamarindtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together426 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  5. Coconut + tomatotop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together511 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Oysters
Provide the main protein and a briny, savoury flavour that the curry carries.
Curry powder
Supplies the spice aroma and warm, earthy flavour that defines the dish.
Onion
Fried until rich brown, it builds a sweet, deep savoury base for the sauce.
Grated coconut meat
Adds richness, body and a mild sweetness to the sauce.
Tamarinds or sour apple
Contributes acidity that balances the richness of the coconut and butter.
Flour
Thickens the liquid into a smooth, body-rich sauce when cooked through.

The step that matters

Stir in the oysters and gently stew. Oysters turn tough and rubbery when overcooked, so they should be added near the end and only briefly stewed until just firm.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (oyster, butter, onion, coconut, meat, tamarind, flour):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Okrafits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, butter, onion, coconut, meat, tamarind, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

More oyster curry recipes

Tartlets 3 See all 28 →

You might also like

Meatless Tomato SoupMeatless Tomato Soup23 recipesTomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesLemon SauceLemon Sauce236 recipesCream of Tomato SoupCream of Tomato Soup107 recipes