This Fricassée of Pumpkin with Salted Pork- Frikase Zironmon ek Koson Sale-is a comforting and flavourful dish which, unlike the traditional French fricassée, is cooked with very young pumpkin and flavoured with garlic and ginger.
- ½ kg salted pork meat
- ½ kg young Jap pumpkin
- 1 onion, chopped
- 2 tsp fresh ginger, crushed
- 250 ml water
- 4 cloves garlic, crushed
- 2 sprigs thyme
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- salt and pepper
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Wash salted pork very thoroughly to remove as much surface salt as possible
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Place in a pot and boil for about 25 minutes until cooked.
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Remove from cooking liquor, allow to cool and cut into bite-size portions. Keep.
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Keep the cooking liquor because you may decide to add some of it to the water when you boil your pumpkin. Be careful though, check for the level of saltiness, because the cooking liquor may make your frikase too salty.
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Wash the pumpkin, peel off the skin and cut into small cubes.
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In a pot, add the oil and sweat the onion and then add ginger and garlic and stir for a minute or so.
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Add the pumpkin, stir and add water and cook until soft.
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Roughly mash the pumpkin in the pot and add the pork, bring to boil and then bring the pot to a simmer.
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Cook for 10 minutes.The dish should have a thick consistency.
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Season and serve the frikase with plain boiled rice and a cucumber salad accompanied with a freshly made chili sauce.
The Seychellois frikase is always cooked with young or immature pumpkin. This is because mature or ripe pumpkin tends to have more sugar that young pumpkin and consequently will have a less developed sweetness. Sweet pumpkin will overpower the dish and will neutralise the effect of the garlic, ginger and onions.
The preferred pumpkin for this dish is young Jap Pumpkin. This is because it has a nutty-sweet flavour and is not sweet. It is also more savoury orientated and a great absorber of other flavours.
Salted pork is not easy to access these days so why not make your own. Follow this link and you will learn how easy it is to salt you own pork.