Rougallie Poisson Sale, Mauritius - Olympic Food Challenge

 aaaaand we are off......

As London and Great Britain gears up for the greatest show on earth, 12 superhero bloggers are taking on the world....
From 204 countries over 19 days, 12 bloggers will eat a dish from all nations.

Tonight I kicked things off on my own little corner of the Internet with Mauritius, the home of the Dodo before it was scoffed to extinction.

Mauritius is a small island off the southeast coast of Africa in the southwest Indian Ocean. the Island was under UK Rule from 1810 when we pinched it off the French and remained so until 1968 when it gained independence. Its main export is Sugar.

They have only won one medal in the olympics, a bronze in Beijing 2008. 

There were a variety of recipes I found for this particular country but this one in particular stood out mainly because I had never cooked with Salt fish before and wanted to see what it was like.

The recipe calls for a lot of fresh tomatoes which is perfect for the time of year as its tomato season, don't go buying those tasteless salad tomatoes in the supermarket.

Rougallie Poisson Sale (Salt fish in Tomato Sauce)
Ingredients

200g salted fish cut into cubes (2-3 cm)

10 chopped tomatoes

1 green chilli 

1 tablespoon chopped thyme

2 tablespoon finely chopped curry leaves

1 finely chopped large onion

1 tablespoon chopped coriander leaves

1 tablespoon finely chopped parsley

1 teaspoon garlic paste

1 teaspoon ginger paste

4 tablespoon oil

Method

Soak the shredded salted fish in hot water forabout half n hour

After the soaking period, pat dry the fish with a paper towel

Heat oil in a non-stick pan and fry the fish on medium flame till golden brown

Remove the fish and set aside on a paper towel

In the remaining oil, add the onions and fry till it becomes light brown

Add thyme, curry leaves, parsley and green chilli and continue to fry for a further 2 minutes

Add the garlic and ginger pastes followed by the chopped tomatoes

Simmer until the tomatoes break down and create a nice sauce

Add the fried fish and let it simmer for a further 5 minutes

Sprinkle the coriander leaves and remove from the heat

Verdict 

Off to a flying start with this beauty. The perfect summer dish, Light and full of delicious tomato flavour, the salt fish provides a nice, slightly chewy texture and the salt compliments the tomato well. I served it simply with white rice but a nice crusty bread dunked in would be good as well.