Living on the East Coast has many advantages – year-round sunshine, the warmth of the Indian Ocean, a lifestyle that’s relaxed and laid back, and a kitchen full of foodie delights to tickle our tastebuds. A quick look at our city’s short, colourful history, coupled with our geographical fortunes, makes for a unique gastro heritage – right on our doorstep.
Durbanites like spicy food. Fresh chilli on the table as a standard condiment is not the norm around the world, but in Durban it’s as obvious as salt and pepper.
Indeed Durban’s very intimate influence from Indian culture gets the credit for this and rightly so – many of our most commonly found chillies in Durban are of Indian origin. We truly are blessed by the incredible flavours that Indian cooking coaxes out our local produce.
It would be amiss however to ignore our infatuations with the cooking of our northern neighbours, who with their Afro-Portuguese melting pot have had their own way with our eating habits, also heavily dependent on the humble chilli. Where in the world are there so many places to eat good peri-peri? This most exotic of Mozambique flavours is common place in Umhlanga.
Our love of spicy foods does not stop there. What of Mazavaroo? Found on the shelves of delis and supermarkets on every corner of our city, this delicious Mauritian chilli lifts so many meals out of the ambit of blandness. We cannot neglect the subtle genius of Mauritian food and how our exposure to it has influenced what we eat.
To get your mouth watering, here are two of my favourite chilli recipes to whip up, plus a few chilli tips to make you get the best buy.
Chilli talk
I use five different types of chilli – fresh red, fresh green, dried red, chilli powder and pickled jalapeño being the most common.
When buying chillies the general rule is the smaller the hotter. The skinny curling Bangalore torpedo can get quite long but also packs a punch.
Most green chillies turn red once ripened so it’s possible to have red and green of the same varietal.
When shopping for chillies, cover your hands with a plastic bag. Many cooks have had “uncomfortable” moments when they’ve touched sensitive parts of their bodies after handling chillies.
Like any fresh produce make sure your chillies are fresh. If they’re starting to fade in colour their aroma will give it away and their flavour will be less pungent.
Mauritian Mazavaroo
There are as many Mazavaroo recipes as there are Mauritian mothers, but this one works for me.
Finely chop equal parts of red or green chillies, ginger, and garlic then gently sauté in butter making sure they don’t take any colour. Take this mixture off the heat and allow to cool down before blending. For every half cup of chilli mixture add the juice of one lemon. Give it a good whizz in the blender adding lugs of olive oil until you have the desired consistency – remembering this is a paste for spreading. Add salt for taste … don’t be shy as the lemon and ginger get lost without it.
Piri-piri, peri-peri, pili-pili …whatever takes your fancy
The African bird’s eye chilli is most commonly used for peri-peri – it’s red, small and exceptionally hot. I like to use whole dried reds too, they have a lovely smokiness.
Soak a nice big handful of whole dried red chillies – with a couple of bay leaves and one thinly sliced onion – in very hot water for 30 minutes to soften. Add these ingredients to your blender with about a cup of the water they were in. Add one head of local red garlic, cleaned and peeled, half a cup of sunflower oil, half a cup of white vinegar, and a good pinch of salt. Remember this is a base sauce and needs to be carefully added to butter, beer or wine for it to truly shine …