Rougaille of seafood .Mauritian creole

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moikel

Master of the Pit
Original poster
OTBS Member
Jul 26, 2011
3,198
218
Sydney &Greenwell Point Australia
I enjoyed the posts of the Louisiana natives so much in Shoneyboy & Chef JJ recent seafood efforts that I  thought I  would post the  Creole food that is around me here. It comes from our Mauritian community .Their melting pot is French,African,Indian & Chinese.

I spent most of yesterday with a young man assigned to work with me whose heritage is Mauritian ,my Doctor migrated from there as a child & there is a family in my street.

My Doctor tells me that the Creole her family speaks is very close to the Creole she hears in American Zydeco music.

The food has French names but non french ingredients.They do some wild curry.

I thought it might interest the forum members who cook Louisiana down home food to see the same style but different from an Island off the coast of Africa.

Exactly what seafood I  use will depend what I  can get on the way home.
 
Ducked down to Chinatown at lunch.Its black tiger prawns
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Very cool Mick! Can't wait...JJ
 
OK I have put this together from several sources within our Mauritian community Madelienne Phillips great website dedicated to the cooking of Mauritius ,the Food Safari show on SBS TV here, & the Australian Mauritian Association website.

I will put the closest recipe down here now but I changed it jut a bit ,for a reason not just to be clever. I will get to that later.This recipe is from Vijay Baboo who says it is actually his moms. 

1kg prawns/shrimp 1/2 kg tomatoes peeled  chopped 2 hot red chilli,finely chopped 1 tabs garlic 1/2 bunch parsley 1 tab cumin powder 2 stems thyme 1 teas white pepper 2 tabs EVO 1 red onion diced 1/2 cup white wine 1 teas paprika 1/2 cilantro.

I changed to canned tomatoes no big deal. I will use my own dried smoked chilli,ditto. Where I  think I am going to go is add 1tab grated fresh ginger because thats in  Madelienne's version & several others. I am not that big a fan of too much cumin ,so my current thinking is to replace it with 50-50 cumin & some curry powder maybe the specialist seafood curry powder I have still in its packet.Thats not a big leap when you see all the curry they cook. There is a duck or chicken curry by a chef Jocelyn Riviere that looks magic. True Creole when Vijay makes the dish with the French name & Jocelyn makes the curry
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The version I watched on TV has the prawns head on  but shelled & cleaned.I think I will dehead them,fry the heads off,smash them with potato masher deglaze with white wine & soaking water from dried chilli then strain that into sauce.Does that make sense Chef JJ?

It looks pretty spicy,your sort of dish if your out there Shoneyboy
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Q view coming when I  get cooking.
 
Making a Chile Shrimp Stock to add to the sauce would be very tasty. I don't know how much liquid is in the Recipe and this may go without needing to be said, but adjust accordingly. Is there some other liquid called for that the Stock can replace? Is the style of Curry you are planning to use available in the States? Or is it similar to the standard Madras Curry we can get? Cool idea...JJ
 
I will post a photo of curry packet ,I am putting stock where there would have been white wine only. Mainly its because its easier to use the shrimp head off I just dont want to waste the flavour bomb the heads are. I will get on it now,just dragged my fat self back from gym.
 
OK here is how I went about it. Fried diced red onion with garlic,ginger, in EVO,about 4 minutes.Gave it a slug of white wine  then 1 minute then added 2 cans Italian tomatoes ,cooked it off a bit. Then added 1 tabs of curry powder,thyme leaves,paprika,cbp,salt,chilli about 4 ,parsley. 

In a seperate pan I fried prawn heads with 2 cloves garlic in some EVO.When they coloured I gave them a slug of white wine & some water that I soaked the dry chilli in,then crushed the heads with a potato masher,threw in some parsley stalks. Cooked it off a bit then strained it ,got about a wine glass full.Put that in sauce,let that simmer about 5 minutes.Tasted it bumped chilli & curry powder but thats just me.

In a seperate pan fried prawn tails with some garlic when they had good colour ,gave it a splash of white wine let it bubble poured the lot into the other pan,stirred it turned off heat let it sit a couple of minutes then served it.

Despite my love of wine this is a beer dish.

Verdict ... pretty special & genuinely different. Would I normally combine curry powder & tomato probably not .Did it work 100% on the $. I may do it with cumin next time but I will need some convincing that its going to give me the depth of flavour I got this time. Its a lot less powder than you would use to make a curry proper so its sort of a background note.

It can be made as hot as you like I used about 700gm,jumbo prawns.It would work with any seafood you like.

Its not bayou Creole its  Southern Hemisphere Creole.
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Hope you liked it.
 
Beautiful, looks delicious! I have not seen that Curry Powder before, looks like a Thai style. Is it similar to Thai Red or more like the Indian style with Turmeric and Fenugreek?...JJ
 
Beautiful, looks delicious! I have not seen that Curry Powder before, looks like a Thai style. Is it similar to Thai Red or more like the Indian style with Turmeric and Fenugreek?...JJ
Its from Malaysia ",contains coriander,chilli,cumin,turmeric,fennel,dhal,fenugreek pepper & other spices" !

I figure its got its origins in the Indian community there but again its a fusion of cultures,Indian,chinese ,Malay. I havent used it before its a quality product cost a whole $2.80 for 300gm. Its a little old because I bought it way back & I make my own powders a lot of the time but its a keeper.

I have  recipes for  Mauritian  curry , cari in creole. Might give one a try.
 
Oh my that looks wonderful. I'd eat that in a heartbeat. Like you not a huge fan of cumin...but your modifications seem to have worked. 

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I reckon if you went to Mauritius some kitchens would be putting curry powder in it as well. Its interesting cooking that has a wonderful colourfull history .I dont want to over think it but you could find similarities in other cuisines ,particularly those Islands on trade routes where the spices transited or where there was different waves of immigration. Food & cooking are a great way to learn history & geography pity they didnt teach it that way when I was in school.
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French,Indian,African & Chinese = Mauritian creole who would have thought it.
 
I haven't seen that brand either, or I just haven't looked for it yet. I'll check it out at our asian store here. Thanks for the info!
 
Man what a great journey - thanks for taking us along. Looks great 
 
Man what a great journey - thanks for taking us along. Looks great 
Your welcome.There are a couple of other dishes that I found that are just screaming out to be tried. A classic chicken curry & these wild little chilli crab cakes that use yellow split peas as part of the mix.Served with a shrimp rougaille  as a side made with those  little dried shrimp you get in Chinatown & a cilantro & mint chutney. 

All in good time.
 
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