Comoros - home cooking

After a good run of restaurant visits, it was back to obscurity with the next country on the list: Comoros. The islands are nestled between the south east coast of Africa and the island nation of Madagascar. The history of Comoros sees many different settlers from many parts of the world - Africa, Indonesia, Portugal for example - and each group of people left their own mark in many parts of the culture, including the cuisine. As such, the country is rich in culinary options.

One of the most common national dishes is "le me tsolola", which essentially is a simple stew with a regional slant. For instance, it contains a staple of the region: bananas. And coconut milk. And combines meat and fish. This was sure to be interesting!

The choice of meat and fish seemed to be left up to the chef, and traditionally was no doubt determined simply by what was available at the time of cooking. I decided to choose what I'd guess is the most commonly eaten meat, lamb. Tripe was an option. Technically, an option. I was never going to choose tripe. Ever.

As for the fish, I wanted just a simple, white fish so I opted for a couple of fillets of river cobbler - Tesco's cheapest. It does the job.

Also involved were two green bananas, two onions, four tomatoes, a tin of coconut milk and seasoning (salt, black pepper and cayenne pepper).

Already the first step seemed odd to me. The fish and meat - cut into pieces - were to be fried together in oil until well browned. And rather predictably at this stage the fish began to cook and break up very quickly. Into tiny flakes, as fish does. To this I added the chopped bananas, onions and tomatoes, poured in the coconut milk and brought this to a simmer. The seasoning was added at this point, and the stew left to simmer for an hour or so.

As the time passed, it became clear that somehow there was too much liquid. It became more of a soup than a stew. And the fish was gone. Disappeared. It essentially became part of the soup/stew/sauce/liquid. A stock.

The meal with served with white rice. On eating, it was actually really quite pleasant. The flavour was sweet with a little kick from the cayenne pepper. The lamb was cooked beautifully, maybe a touch too much (probably as I tried to boil away some of the excess liquid!). The fish flavour was less than delicate. Barely noticeable. What *was* noticeable was the occasional sweet mush of banana. The texture was as unusual as was the contrast in flavour from the fruit.

Overall, it was an enjoyable meal. A pseudo soup-stew with a very different combination of flavours. And no tripe.