#15 Seychelles
- Jen
- May 8, 2020
- 4 min read
Updated: Jul 4, 2022
Seychelles is arguably the country in the world with the dreamiest-sounding name (Bahamas is also a contender)…
…and its geographical description is certainly dreamy-sounding : 115 islands in the Indian Ocean. Some of the islands are lush, green and mountainous and some are stunning but uninhabitable coral atolls. The average daily highs range between 24 and 30°C and winds are typically mild. The land meets the azure seas at pristine white sandy beaches scattered with palm trees and tortoises.
Can I be locked down in Seychelles please?
History and today
All of the 115 islands were uninhabited prior to European discovery in the 16th century. It was colonised by the French before being surrendered to the Brits. Workers from Africa and Asia arrived throughout the European colonisation, resulting in a mixed population. Seychelles gained independence in 1976 and has been a Commonwealth member since.
The population is less than 100,000, which makes it the smallest country by inhabitants in Africa. It also has the highest GDP per capita of any African country (and the highest out of countries I’ve blogged to date…yes, I have a spreadsheet).
Food
Seychellois cuisine = (African + Asian + European) influences, which sounds as dreamy as the place in which it is eaten. As you can probably imagine, seafood is ubiquitous (red snapper, lobster, octopus, tuna…), with fresh catches going straight to the grill on beach-fronts or in markets, served with satini, which is a freshly grated fruit salad, usually blow-your-head-off spicy. We’ve just described my happy place: your senses being assaulted in a bustling food market and shoving the freshest local produce into your mouth as you wander around…face, hands and clothes sticky but you care approximately zero.
Fun fact: the Indian Ocean Tuna company has a cannery in the capital, Victoria, and is the biggest single employer in the country.
A more unorthodox use of fish in Seychelles is shark chutney. Cheese…cake?! Shark…chutney?! Made by boiling and mashing some shark meat with some bilimbi (bit like a starfruit I think), lime and spices and hey presto, shark chutney.
Seychellois curries are flavoured with curry leaves and fresh coconut cream and make use of ginger, lemongrass, vanilla, nutmeg and masala spices. Octopus is an island curry favourite and tourists don’t typically leave without trying it.
Lentils (dal) are commonly eaten as a side dish, cooked simply with garlic and ginger.
Whatever kind of tropical fruit you fancy you can find it here: coconut, bananas (of many varieties; referring back to the Uganda blog, you know how I feel about this), mango, papaya, pineapple, passion fruit, lime, grapefruit, breadfruit and so many more!
The Seychellois people rate their breadfruit so much that they famously say if you have breadfruit in Seychelles you are guaranteed to come back to the islands. Packets of salted breadfruit chips exist where we might find a packet of crisps.
Ladob can be savoury but is usually a dessert dish. It consists of fresh fruit (banana, breadfruit or even a cassava) cooked in sweetened coconut milk with cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla.
In addition to all the fish, fruit bat curry is somewhat of a delicacy…dunno how fruit bat curry vendors over there are getting on at the moment but I’m certainly not taking any chances and I’m sticking to farmed and regulated fish.
Seychelles Sunday
Octopus (prawn) curry
I found a few similar recipes online for coconut curry with fish, which, for me in this instance, was prawns.
The whole process was quick and easy: cook down onion, garlic and ginger, add diced tomatoes and aubergine, flavour with a decent garam masala and additional turmeric and cinnamon, throw in the prawns and add coconut cream. The kitchen smelled divine! Chopped parsley and a good squeeze of lime juice to serve.
The coconut cream I used came directly (via a few months lost somewhere in the depths of the US Post Office) from Samoa. My pal, Geoff, lives out there and he assures me that this is as good as you can get in a tin*. Only the finest for this blog!
*There is no way I’m going to let the rest of that high-end can of coconut cream go to waste! I’m going to make individual coconut pineapple cheesecakes this weekend.
The curry was utterly scrumptious! I think you could really tell that I’d used a quality coconut cream. The size of the dice of the aubergine was spot on (cm cubes); the little chunks just subtly blended themselves into the curry, allowing the prawns to remain the star of the show. It had a nice warmth and wasn’t too spicy. I definitely felt like I could have been in the shade of a palm tree at a beach café whilst enjoying that. I really think it would taste good with rum too…
To boost the nutritional value of my meal I also made a side of yummy dal with red lentils with garlic, ginger and chilli. Simple yet effective. If anyone knows how to make dal more photogenic please let me know #brownslop.
I’ll be sad to live this tropical paradise but GEORGIA is calling.
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