Seychelles

Welcome to Seychelles! 

Seychelles, according to Google, has a population of 98,443 people.  The capital is Victoria.  It's in Africa, and a group of about 115 islands.  I hear that it is a beautiful place - sometime I'd like to visit.  Everything I read said national dishes consisted of plantains/bananas and beans.  I can't stand bananas, and one of my dietary restrictions is beans.  This was going to be a challenge.  What is the official food, you ask?

 

 

 

Fish/Curry!

Now, I do like fish, but I have to admit, I didn't do fish curry.  I did curry though!  I love a good curry, but haven't been able to master a good curry yet.  Wondering if this may be the time???

Here's what I did:

SEYCHELLES-STYLE COCONUT CHICKEN CURRY

2 tbsp Avocado Oil

1 Onion, chopped

4 Garlic cloves, diced

2 tsp Fresh Ginger, diced

1 tbsp Pepper

1/4 tsp Ground Cloves

1 tsp Ground Ginger

1 tsp Ground Nutmeg

1/4 tsp Cinnamon

3 tbsp Curry Powder (I had yellow curry powder, so I used that)

1 pinch Saffron

1 Bay Leaf

1 Kaffir Lime Leaf

2 Red Potatoes

1 lb Chicken Breast, cut in bite-sized cubes

1 Can Coconut Milk (mine was about 13 oz)

1/2 tsp Salt to taste (in the future, I would add WAY more...)

 

1.  In a large pot, heat oil over medium high heat, add onions, and saute until semi-translucent.
2. Add the garlic, fresh ginger, pepper, cloves, ground ginger, nutmeg, curry powder, saffron, bay leaf, and kaffir lime leaf.  Cook over medium heat for about 2 minutes, until it starts smelling fragrant. 
3. Add the potatoes and chicken.  Coat with the spices, and cover and cook for about five minutes, stirring once or twice.
4. Add coconut milk, lower the heat to low, cover and simmer for 20 minutes.
5. Remove lid, stir, and cook an additional 15 minutes until creamy.
6. Remove bay leaf and Kaffir lime leaf, and serve.

(Source: https://boulderlocavore.com/seychelles-style-coconut-chicken-curry-recipe/)

DAUBE DE BANANA

2 Plantains 

1 Vanilla Pod, split

1 tsp Ground Nutmeg

1 Can Coconut Milk

6 small Cinnamon Sticks

2 tbsp Sugar

1/2 tsp Salt

 

1. Peel the plantains, cut in half, then half lengthwise.
2. Place cinnamon sticks in the bottom of a pan.  Put the cut plantains on top of cinnamon sticks, cut side up,  and sprinkle with salt, sugar, and nutmeg.
3. Add the split vanilla pod and cover with coconut milk (it won't cover the plantains - just the vanilla pod).
4. Bring to a boil, and cook for 10 minutes.
5. Reduce heat to low and cook for another 35 minutes.
6. Serve!

(Source: https://www.internationalcuisine.com/daube-de-banana/)

The verdict?  The curry was good, but bland.  Handsome Husband put it well that the curry has lots of spice, but pretty bland.  The recipe said to add "salt to taste" - You need to add A LOT of salt to taste!  In the future, I would add it right away, and then probably add more.  I also had every intention to use jicama instead of potatoes, to keep the carb count lower.  However, when I cut into the jicama, it was bad inside.  Luckily I had some extra potatoes from a meal earlier this week!  We didn't do the recipe over rice, as recommended, but thought that it wouldn't really enhance the curry either - just make it more bland.  We thought that maybe adding veggies to it would help, but then it would probably turn into more of a Thai dish.  So we weren't sure how to make this better.

For the Daube de Banana dish, I think my mistake was that I didn't use ripe plantains.  To be honest, they really didn't taste like anything.  Handsome Husband said the sauce was fantastic, but not much to say about the plantains other than they were "flavorless".  We both decided that we would rather have our carbs with something that tastes much better!  Like these...delectable...pumpkin bars (thanks Randy)!

So, the rating.  We're both going to rate the dishes on a scale from 1-10.

ME

Taste of Seychelles-Style Coconut Chicken Curry (1 is terrible, 10 is amazing):  4

Spicy (hot) (1 is not at all spicy, 10 is uneatable):  4

Flavor (1 is no flavor, 10 is packed with flavor):  7

 

HANDSOME HUSBAND

Taste of Seychelles-Style Coconut Chicken Curry (1 is terrible, 10 is amazing):  5

Spicy (hot) (1 is not at all spicy, 10 is uneatable):  3

Flavor (1 is no flavor, 10 is packed with flavor): 7

 

ME

Taste of Daube de Banana (1 is terrible, 10 is amazing):  1

Spicy (hot) (1 is not at all spicy, 10 is uneatable):  0

Flavor (1 is no flavor, 10 is packed with flavor):  3

 

HANDSOME HUSBAND

Taste of Daube de Banana (1 is terrible, 10 is amazing):  4 ("Sauce bailed it out!")

Spicy (hot) (1 is not at all spicy, 10 is uneatable):  0

Flavor (1 is no flavor, 10 is packed with flavor): 3 

So there you have it!  Seychelles.  It would be interesting to go to the islands to see if the food truly is that bland.  Or maybe I just don't know how to do it well.  It's probably me.

Next stop...Namibia!