Comoros--or "The Comoros"--is an interesting country. Situated off the coast of Africa, in between Mozambique and Madagascar, it's a crossroads of cultures. People there speak Comorian (a relative of Swahili), French (an administrative language as the government continues to be administered by France as an overseas department), and Arabic (where the name came from--qamar, meaning "moon").
The national dish of Comoros is actually lobster cooked with vanilla. Sounds strange, but apparently it's delicious. It also makes sense, as vanilla is one of their leading exports. I've never had lobster in my life and don't plan on ever eating it, so I had to do a little more digging to find a vegetarian meal that would be interesting and unique. Along with vanilla, Comoros also grows lots of other spices. And its contact with the Middle East and France means there are lots of flavors going on. I chose ambrevades au coco, or pigeon peas with coconut, except I used lentils. I was planning on black eyed peas, but I actually realized pigeon peas act more like lentils when cooked since they're more flat than black eyed peas.
The first step is preparing the coconut milk. The recipe I used called for taking two coconuts, breaking them open, grating them, then extracting the milk from the grated flesh. I just went with canned coconut milk because I pretty much always have it in my pantry and also why would I even try to attempt that. The milk is then mixed with a variety of spices to form the base of the curry.
The peas or lentils are boiled until soft enough to slightly crush. I didn't crush mine too much because I know lentils break down really easily when cooked longer.
Then you add some onion and tomato to the lentils. The recipe I first came across used tomato and no onion, but many others I saw used onion and no tomato. I went with the best of both worlds.
The spiced coconut milk is added to a pot and when it starts boiling, the lentil and vegetable mixture is stirred in and simmered.
While that cooked, I prepared my second dish: achard de légumes, or simply picked vegetables. It starts with garlic and ginger. They're are mashed a bit with some sea salt before being mixed with turmeric and placed in a pan with hot oil.
Once the garlic-ginger mixture has softened slightly, the vegetables are added to the pan. Green beans, carrots, bell pepper, cabbage and onion are all added and mixed together. Once they're thoroughly mixed with the garlic-ginger oil, they immediately come off the heat. The goal isn't to cook them, just soften them very slightly.
Once the heat is off, you add the vinegar. I used white wine vinegar since it's more delicate and you can use more of it without it overpowering everything else.
It's so nice to have something with such bright colors on the plate, especially on a snowy day. The curry was warm and comforting, but the vegetables really lifted everything up. Everything was very filling but also felt quite healthy.
I've made lentil curry many times, but usually in a slow cooker to develop the flavor so I'm not standing over the stove forever. I might start making it this way since once the lentils are in the coconut milk, they only need to cook for 10 minutes. Adding the spices to the coconut milk beforehand is actually a really smart way to infuse the flavors in a short amount of time.
Both of these dishes are simple but delicious. I was planning on cooking Singapore this weekend but with a snowstorm approaching, I wasn't really in the mood to visit several grocery stores to find the ingredients I needed. Luckily, we only needed to buy a few ingredients since most of the stuff I already had in my pantry and fridge. I'll definitely be making this one again, but doubling the curry recipe so I can have several days of leftovers...
Recipes used: Ambrevades au coco // Achard de legumes
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