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All text and pictures of dishes are the intellectual property of
Coquinaria and may not be reproduced without permission and acknowledgement..
recipe
september/october 2006
From the Isle of the Dodo
The culinary history of Mauritius, an isle in the Indian
Ocean
Dutch
version of this recipe
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"You ate all the Dodo's!"
I've heard that remark several times this summer during my vacation on Mauritius.
It was said with a smile, by friendly people, but still ... Yes, I am Dutch, and
"we" Dutch people are responsible for the extinction of that peculiar flightless
bird by the end of the seventeenth century. So, on behalf of my fellow
countrymen of the distant past: Sorry.
To make amends I have now chosen two recipes from Mauritius' culinary past. They
come from a fascinating book I found in Port-Louis, the capital city of the
isle. The French book is titled Deux siècles de Cuisine.
Héritage de l'Isle de France (That's what Mauritius was called when it was a
French colony). The book is written by Jean-Claude Hein, who received the Grand Prix de Littérature Culinaire de l'Académie Nationale de Cuisine
in 2003. At the moment he is working on an extended version in English.
M. Hein has been kind enough to tell me more about the background of the
recipes, and he also send me a short English overview of the culinary history of
Maurice. You'll find his article below.
The two recipes I've chosen both originate
from the Indian cuisine that started to be an influence on Mauritian cuisine in
the beginning of the nineteenth century, with the arrival of Indian immigrants
from 1830 onwards. The recipes were written down by the grandmother of monsieur
Hein, Madame Alice Lesur Rey (1873-1942). She has left several voluminous
manuscripts filled with recipes, starting around 1890. In those days it was
customary for marriageable girls to write their own cookery notes, to be
prepared for their role as the lady of the house.
To be sure, recipes from around 1900 are very
recent for this website, but for most of us it already is a distant past. But,
because I wanted to present something connected to my summer holiday, and
because I wanted to bring the book from which I have taken the recipes to your
attention, you find for once a couple of very young 'historical recipes'. I
promise that the next recipe will be at least five hundred years old!
A SHORT HISTORY OF MAURITIAN
CUISINE
By M. Jean-Claude Hein
Mauritian cuisine is defined as “exotic”, the term usually
attributed to the cuisines of tropical climates. It all began in 1720, with the
arrival of the French at Isle de France, as they had renamed the Island of
Mauritius formerly occupied by the Dutch.
The Dutch, who from 1598 were to intermittently remain on
the Island for over one century, introduced there some plants of agricultural
interest (coconut, tamarind, various citrus trees, banana, etc.) and
successfully cultivated sugarcane and the sweet
potato. They also introduced a species of deer from Java, today the Island’s
most important game.
They
abandoned Mauritius in 1710.
When the first French settlers found themselves in the
tropical environment of Isle de France, they were compelled to adapt their
cuisine to the local products available, thus creating what was to become the
Mauritian Creole cuisine.
As early as 1735, French governor Mahé de la Bourdonnais
wanting the Island to be alimentary self-sufficient, to that intent introduced
numerous plants of culinary interest from countries as far apart as Europe,
India, the West Indies or Brazil, an important and positive step towards the
development of the future cuisine of Mauritius.
Pierre Poivre, who during his stay at Isle de France
during the second half of the 18th century had for mission to make it
the “Spice Island” the French so much wanted, will continue the efforts of de La
Bourdonnais by bringing back from each of his expeditions to Southeast Asia a
large selection of edible plants, some among which will integrate the local
culinary scene.
It is towards the end of the 18th century that
Mauritian cuisine began displaying its particular identity, as by that time most
of the vegetables and fruits used in present-day cookery were already present at
Isle de France, though not all being cultivated.
When the English took possession of Isle de France in 1810,
this did not interfere with the local culinary style, but during the 19th
century Mauritian cuisine was to benefit from the Indian immigration (as from
the 1830s) and also from the less important Chinese one, that peaked towards the
end of the century.
As tradition commands, the newcomers having not abandoned
their traditional culinary preferences, this was to add still more variety to
the Mauritian culinary repertory.
This situation allowed for Mauritian cuisine to adopt
dishes as contrasting as the rougail with its typical French Provencal origins
or our brèdes, that essential component of Chinese cuisine that blends so well
with the numerous local variations of Indian specialities, such as caris
(curries) chatinis (chutneys) or achard (atchar).
An exceptional feat in the history of the cuisine of
Mauritius is that the three “grandes cuisines” of the world, those of France,
India and China were to find themselves on that Island, where not only they rub
shoulders, but do associate.
Mauritius is apparently the only country where these three
cuisines do constantly appear on the same menu, if not in the same plate, thus
positioning it among the exotic cuisines offering the most variety.
And this is one reason why all those having at heart its
preservation should endeavour making it better known, especially to those
visitors who would enjoy discovering
About the dodo
The original recipes
from
Deux siècles de cuisine (edition), pp.163 and
263. The English translation is from M. Hein, but I have made
some small changes.
Vine d'ail de
poisson.
Faire frire le poisson à l'huile. Préparer une sauce au safran, en délayant
le safran sec écrasé dans le vinaigre. Passer cette préparation au tamis ou
passoire afin de retenir toute les parties inserviables des condiments
employés. Gingembre, petits piments écrasés, ail au gout, sel, et quelques
oignons (ces derniers sont coupés en rondelles et mis dans la sauce en même
temps que le poisson. Ajouter l'huile d'olive, et faire cuire le tout. |
Fish Vindaye.
Have the fish fried in oil. Prepare a turmeric sauce by dissolving the
crushed dry turmeric in the vinegar. Strain this preparation through a sieve
or strainer, so as to retain all the unusable solid particles. To the sauce,
add ginger, crushed small chillies, garlic to taste, salt, and a few onions
(these are cut in slices and added with the fish). Add the olive oil, and
proceed with the cooking. |
Moutayes.
Proportions: 1 livre de riz malgache - 1 1/2 livre farine de blé - 1/4 livre
de levain - 3 tasses à dejeuner d'eau - un peu de vanille - 1 litre 1/2
d'huile de pistache ou deux livres de saindoux pour la cuisson, fournissant
environ 125 moutayes.
Laisser le pâte fermenter huit à 12 heures, selon la saison et l'endroit oú
on la placera. 3 livres de sucre pour le sirop, une gousse de vanille.
Pour préparer la farine de riz, il faut mettre le riz à tremper pendant deux
heures dans de l'eau froide, puis le mettre à secher au soleil. On pourra
ensuite le faire moudre (?) sur le pierre, le tamiser et le remettre au
soleil pour que la farine ne fermente pas, surtout si elle est faite de la
veille. Délayer de levain avec l'eau, les farines melangées, mettre la
vanille, laisser la préparation dans le bol oú on l'a faite, la recouvrir
d'une serviette et la laisser aupres du foyer. Quand le pâte a monté et
qu'on est prêt a le faire cuire, il faut lui ajouter un peu d'eau si elle
n'est pas suffisamment liquide. Verser la pâte dans un coco percé, la
laisser couler dans la friture bouillante, puis la retirer pour la plonger
dans le sirop chaud qui aura été préparé à l'avance. |
"Moutayes".
Ingredients: 1 pound Madagascar rice, 1 1/2 pound wheat flour, 1/4 pound
sourdough, 3 cups water, a little vanilla, 1 1/2 litre arachide oil or two
pound lard to fry, for about 125 moutayes. Let the dough rise for eight to 12
hours, according to the season and where it will be put. [Also] 3 pound sugar
for syrup, one vanilla pod.
To prepare rice flour the rice must be soaked for two hours in cold water,
then left to dry in the sun. Then one can grind them on the (grinding)
stone, sift it in and put it again out in the sun to dry, to prevent the
flour from fermenting, especially when it was prepared the day before.
Add the water and the mixed flours to the sourdough with the vanilla, and
leave the preparation in the same mixing bowl. Cover with a cloth and leave
it next to the oven. When the dough has risen and is about to be cooked, a
small amount of water must be added to it if it is not fluid enough. Then
pour it into a perforated coconut shell and let it run into the frying oil
before taking out the pieces and dipping them into the hot syrup that has
been prepared in advance. |
The modern adaptation of the recipes:
My adventures in making these dishes can be
found on my LJ.
Vindaye de poisson
Printout
version of this recipe
The name of this dish has a history. The
Portuguese had a dish called
'vinha-d'alho', meat marinated in wine vinegar with herbs and spices, and garlic
of course. When the Portuguese colonised
Goa
(on the West coast of India) the name got corrupted into 'vindaloo', which came
to represent one of the spiciest dishes of Indian cuisine. On Maurice the name
got 'Frenchified' into 'vin d'ail', and ended up as 'vindaye' in Creole. This
recipe is a vindaye de poisson, but there is also vindaye with meat, like pork.
Whatever fish you choose, it has to have firm meat. M. Hein mentions
tuna, barracuda, king fish (Caranx sp.) and green jobfish ('vacoas' or Aprion
virescens)
If you have read the original French recipe you'll have noticed that it calls
for 'safran sec écrasé'.
This is not saffron, but dried turmeric.
Modern versions of this recipe often add mustard or mustard seeds together with
the other spices.
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List of ingredients:
1 pound fish with firm meat
1 large or 2 small onions, sliced thinly
1/2 decilitre (1/4 cup) vinegar
1 tsp. ground turmeric
1/2 tsp. ground ginger or 1 tsp. fresh grated ginger
red chillies to taste (a small variety)
2 to 3 garlic cloves, crushed
salt to taste
olive oil
Preparation in advance:
Temper the vinegar with the turmeric.
Remove the seeds fromthe chillies, chop them small. Take care not to rub your
eyes or pick your nose, even long after handling the chillies. Or use latex
gloves.
Preparation:
Fry the sliced onions in oil until soft, remove them. Add the fish (whole,
filets or diced) to the same oil. After a few minutes, add garlic, ginger and
chillies, then return the onions to the pan and pour in te vinegar/turmeric.
Bring to the boil, poach the fish until done (three to ten minutes, depending on
what fish and in what form it is prepared). If you want more sauce, add some
water, the vindaye is a rather dry curry.
To serve:
Vindaye can be served either hot or at room temperature.
Moutayes
Printout
version of this recipe
 |
This dessert belongs to the same family as
the indian Gulab Jamun and the English Doughnuts: they are all deepfried and
dipped into syrup immediately afterwards.
The moutaye is a spiralled pastry, five to seven centimetres in diameter (2 to
2¾ inches). To make that spiral requires some expertise: the batter must be
poured into the frying oil whilst making a spiralling movement. The original
recipe prescribes using a perforated cocnut to let the batter run through. I
have tried this, but the batter had to be so liquid to be able to run through
the eye with any speed at all, that I finally gave up and used a large piping
bag. I also decided not to use the electric deepfrying pan, because the batter
would sink too fast before surfacing again to form a spiral.
In the manuscript there is a name behind the title of the recipe, 'Gopal'. M.
Hein wrote that this is the name of the cook who worked for his grandmother at
the time and helped her with the recipe.
Typical for Maurician cuisine is the use of vanilla, which is grown on the
island as a commercial product.
In the French version the moutayes are fried in 'huile de pistache'. I have
translated that with 'arachide oil', because on Maurice peanuts are called
'pistaches'.
The end result you see on the pictures may look like a funnel cake, but it is
not the same. A funnel cake is made with unleavened batter and sprinkled with
powdered sugar, moutayes are made from leavened batter and dipped in syrup.
One last remark before continuing with the actual recipe: The use of '¼
livre de levure' (a quarter pound of yeast) and the many hours needed for rising
would indicate that leaven (sourdough) was used instead of yeast. In my
adaptation I used dry yeast, because my own batch of leaven has recently died
and I haven't yet been able to start a new one. But if you have a batch of
sourdough, take one decilitre of it instead of yeast and lessen the amount of
water accordingly. Let the dough rise for at least two hours. You may use a
little dry yeast to give the leaven a boost if you think that is necessary.
 |
List of ingredients (for 16 to 25
moutayes):
150 gram (1 1/4 cup) wheat flour
100 gram (2/3 cup) rice flour
4 gram (1 tsp.) dry yeast or 20 gram (0.7 ounce) compressed baker's yeast
the seeds of 1 vanilla pod
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 litre (1 cup) tepid water + extra water
The syrup:
250 gram (1 1/4 cup) sugar
1/2 litre (2 cups/1 pint) water
the empty vanilla pod left over from the batter
1 more vanilla pod
Deep frying:
neutral oil or lard
Preparation in advance:
Make the batter: Combine both flours with salt and dry yeast (if you use that).
Split the vanilla pod and scoop out the black seeds, add these to the flour. Now
add the tepid water and work it into a dough. Cover the bowl with a damp cloth
and let the dough rise for an hour.
Make the syrup: Put together sugar, water, the empty vanilla pod from making the
batter and the seeds from a new vanilla pod. Bring to the boil, let the sugar
dissolve and cook gently for five more minutes.
Preparation:
Heat the sugar syrup.
Tap the dough to make it collapse, then add about ½
decilitre tepid water. Stir to a smooth batter.
Pour a layer of oil (about two centimetres/¾ inch) in a low, wide pan (no
teflon), heat the oil to 200EC/390EF).
Scoop the batter into a piping bag with a nozzle (smooth or serrated, the
endresult will be the same). Now pour the batter into the hot oil (be careful!)
with a spiralling movement. You can bake batches of four to five moutayes at a
time in a frying pan of 22 centimetres/9 inches in diameter. Fry the moutayes
for three to four minutes, until they have a turned a very light brown.
Drain the moutayes, then let them swim in the warm syrup for a minute before
serving.
To serve:
Immediately. The moutayes will go soggy when you allow them to stand.
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Coconut: Maurice is covered
with coconut trees in all kinds. The fruit of the Cocos nucifera is more than
the hairy nut you buy at the store. The coconut is a drupe, like peaches and
apricots. But whereas you eat the flesh of a peach and throw away its stone,
with the cocnut the husk or exocarp is removed before shipping, leaving just
that stone. The stone is hollow, with three 'eyes' on one end. If ever the seed
germinates, the shoot will emerge through one of those eyes.
In an unripe coconut the hollow is filled with a not very pleasant liquid. As
the fruit ripens, the liquid gradually solidifies at the inside of the stone,
becoming the white coconut meat. The remaining liquid will become sweet and
quite good to drink. Note that what we call 'coconut milk' is NOT that liquid,
but the result of soaking grated coconut meat in warm water and straining the
resulting liquid.
When you have bought your very first coconut, you may scratch your head and
wonder how to open it. First you have to drain the remaing liquid from the nut.
Perforate two of the eyes of the nut with an awl, hold it upside down, and catch
the liquid in a jar. If you're lucky, it is tasty enough to drink. Then, just
place the nut on a hard surface, and give a little tap with a hammer on the
'equator'. Roll, tap again, roll, tap, roll, tap, and suddenly your coconut has
split in two! Another method is to tap the nut itself with the 'eye' side
downward on a realy hard surface, the nut will split lengthwise.
Coconut meat is radiantly white. You'll have to pry it loose from its shell.
Maybe there is an easy way to do this (please tell me!), but my way is simply to
take a sharp knif and start with cutting loose small pieces of coconot, then, as
more is removed, larger pieces can be pried loose. The thin brown skin with
which the white coconut meat adhered to the nut shell can be eaten, you do not
need to remove it. However, if you plan on grating the coconut, the skin has to
be removed.
Turmeric:
Is also known as kunjit or curcuma (Curcuma longa). Just like ginger and galanga
it is a rhizome. The Dutch name is 'yellowroot', and that is exactly what
turmeric is: very, very yellow, nearly orange. Stains from turmeric are
difficult to remove (no wonder it's also used as dye). The plant is indigenous
to Southeast Asia and India. Turmeric is called 'safran' on Maurice. Fresh
turmeric is called 'safran vert', and what we call saffron is 'jaffran' (hindi)
or 'safran oriental' (creole).
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Vanilla: Together with potatoes and cacao, the vanilla
pod
(Vanilla planifolia) is one of the ingredients originating from the New World.
Nowadays vanilla is mainly grown on islands in the Pacific Ocean. The flowers
have to be pollinated by hand, because the hummingbirds and insects that take
care of that in Central America are absent in the Pacific region.
Vanilla pods are the 'fruit' from the vanilla orchid, a climber. The pods are
harvested before ripening, steamed and fermented. If you cut the pod open
lengthwise you can scoop out the very small black seeds to use in dishes. You
can also use the pod itself, but that has to be removed before serving.
You can also buy synthetic vanillin, which is a lot cheaper, but also a lot less
in flavour.
Bibliography
The editions below
are in my possession. Links refer to available editions.
All books mentioned on this site (with short reviews)
Jean-Claude Hein, Deux siècle de cuisine. Héritage de l'Isle de France,
Maurice, 2001. There will be an English version in the future.
My sincere thanks to M. Hein for his additional information and answers to my
questions.
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This page was updated on
23-07-09 (d-m-y).
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All text and pictures of dishes are the intellectual property of
Coquinaria and may not be reproduced without permission and acknowledgement..
|
