While flipping through three years of pictures, there are so many memories, so many friends, so many experiences – our time in Mauritius was very full.
While we will always have the memory of friends and experiences, there are two things we are looking forward to: Our friends from Mauritius coming to visit the House wherever the house happens to be, and sharing Mauritius with new friends through the food. These are some of the recipes we collected/invented in Mauritius. This is some of what you will experience at the House if you come for a visit.
Green chilli is good on everything. Even sweets! And homemade is best. Dinner at the House will include more sauces on the table at every meal as a result of our time in Mauritius.
T&T’s Mauritian-inspired Chili
We discovered French food, and that anything using duck and duck fat is yummy 😊. Crispy duck legs are awesome. Foie Gras is awesome. Duck fat is the House “go-to” fat for frying anything. One of our favourite discoveries was using a Yunnan Steamer for French cooking. Here is a favourite recipe featuring Foie Gras.
A recipe for the rare occasion we found affordable scallops
Before our time in Mauritius, one of the Ts had a long list of nonedible foods. Sometimes this was a sad state of affairs for the other T, who just likes to eat and will try anything. Mauritius has changed everything! Prior to coming to Mauritius, the picky T committed to finding the good in food that isn’t made from cow or potatoes. Fish is now a T&T House favourite! We’ve learned a good strong fish stock is the base for almost any tasty seafood dish or soup. We make this using our super fancy rice cooker with a porridge setting, but any pressure cooker will work.
At one point the T&T House went through a pickling phase. Local Mauritian cuisine requires a few pickle variations on the table. This is when the House discovered almost anything can be pickled. Fruit and seafood are particularly good. If you haven’t pickled before, try this to get you started, then come up with your own!
Pickled Cucumber and Pineapple
Tamarind is something you can eat. Tamarind chutney is good on almost anything and required for Biryani.
After one of our farewell dinners given us by one of the best cooks we know, we decided we needed to work on the presentation aspect of House cooking. Here’s a picture of her salad, which looked almost too good to eat. We have some recipes we really love given us by some really good local cooks, but we currently lack the flare. One example is a sweet called Barfi. Really tasty, but sort of ordinary looking when we make them. So hopefully the next time you visit the House, the barfi will be looking a bit better – it’s something we’ll be working on.
Coconut Barfi – recipe from a favourite co-worker
Vegetables are good, and a whole lot of meat with just veg is not only possible, but can be great! The House repertoire grew a lot in this category over the last couple years. One of our favourites:
When we came to Mauritius we didn’t expect we would have the opportunity to become acquainted with Indian culture, but of course we did as a large part of the population is Indian. There was also the opportunity for two excursions to India during the House stay in Mauritius. This is when the House discovered asafoetidafa isn’t a made up word. It’s a very unique Indian spice that seems to be completely absent from Indian cooking in Australia. If you can find it, try this:
There’s a strong Arabian influence in Mauritius and that’s how the picky T discovered a liking for lamb that extends beyond lamb shanks.😊
The picky T never had a problem with spicy food. It was the other T who grew in that area while in Mauritius. One contributor to this growth was the House Chili Garden. For one season we grew Jalapeno, Poblano, Serrano and Habanero chilis in our Mauritius garden. This resulted in a search for recipes that would put the home-grown chilis in the best light. Here’s a very spicy one!
Lastly, the House favourite Mauritian street-food snack. Sad to say, but many expats working in Mauritius can live there for years with never going into Port Louis. We went often for shopping, eating, hiking, sightseeing…. First thing was always a snack from a street vendor. Very good, made from taro root and, of course, deep fried…
The TnT House 