Another typical Mauritian recipe is heading your way! The Fish Vindaye!
This Mauritian Fish Vindaye Recipe is one of our Aulson Mama’s recipe. It is a turmeric and mustard flavoured salad style dish. Often found being sold by street vendors or in small local convenience stores called “tabagies”. This dish is best eaten with a fresh baguette or “dipin maison” or “pain maison”. This famous pain maison is the round bread you’ll find many people waking up at 5am to buy at the local tabagies.
The Mauritian Fish Vindaye recipe is perfect for lunch and preparing it in advance is the best way to do it. Let it marinate to fully release all the flavours overnight this will make it even more delicious the next day. The Fish Vindaye goes way back and pretty much everyone on the island enjoys it. The delicious turmeric and mustard flavour, mixed with the big pieces of onions and cooked garlic. It is a burst of flavour with the tender texture of the fish. In this recipe we are using the Swordfish, called the Espadon in Mauritius. We get our Espadon from Reve D’r‘s shop called Bella Amigo. We definitely recommend Bella Amigo. A trusted place for seafood, fresh or frozen and service is always on point.
We were lucky to meet Hemsha this time, from Bella Amigo when buying our fish. Therefore she was able to give us amazing tips & tricks to make this recipe even tastier! Thank you Hemsha!
Tips & Tricks by Hemsha from Bella Amigo
Squeeze lemon juice
Squeeze half a lemon on the swordfish to smooth the strong fish taste if any. A lot of people like to eat fish but the “fishy-ness” can be too strong to appreciate. Because of that, this technique will help in many cases to reduce that flavour that can be too overpowering.
For a depth of flavour
Hemsha recommended to add vinegar, lemon juice, water and sugar to the turmeric and mustard paste. And that was a great tip, sometimes the curry powder and mustard can give a “flat” flavour to the dish. Therefore adding these little bits of extra helps add more depth to the flavour of this dish.
Thanks again Hemsha!
How to eat it best
- This dish should be kept refrigerated and usually eaten cold or at room temperature.
- Store in fridge overnight before eating it, you’ll see that each day it’ll get even tastier.
- Best to eat it within 1 week.
- We love eating it with bread but can also be eaten with rice.
Mauritian Fish Vindaye –
Vindaye Poisson
Course: From The Kitchen, Lunch, DinnerDifficulty: Easy8-10
servings45
minutesIngredients
1.5 Kg of swordfish cut in squares of 1 inc approx.
1 big onion quartered and separated
8 cloves garlic sliced
1 thumb size piece ginger sliced
2 tablespoon of turmeric powder
1 tablespoon of mustard seed slightly crushed in a mortar
3-4 Green chilies halves (per taste)
(Some people like to grate the garlic & ginger, per preference)
Directions
- Pat dry the cubes of fish, sprinkle with salt & pepper. Squeeze half a lemon to smoothen the strong taste as recommended by Hemsha* at Bella Amigo Boutique. Let it sit for 15 mins, strirring the mixture 2-3 times.
- Heat oil to high, slowly add the fish cubes, taking care not to pour the whole bowl, with water at the bottom, into the hot oil.
- Cook till lightly brown.
- Mix the turmeric powder with the crushed mustard seeds into a paste by adding two tablespoon of vinegar or lemon juice and water as required and add a teaspoon of sugar as recommended by Hemsha*.
- Remove any residue from the oil used to fry the fish. Heat oil to medium, cook the ginger and garlic for few seconds. Then add the paste of turmeric mustard seed, green chili and keep stirring. Lastly add the onion which we do not want overcook. Lower the heat to minimum, add the fish and mix well. Add salt to taste.
- Once cooled down, pour ¼ cup of oil over the fish and the excess turmeric paste will form a sauce with the oil at the bottom of your bowl. Add 2 tablespoon of vinegar or lemon juice to preserve the dish that can be kept in a sealed container for a week in the fridge.
- This is a dish that is best served after 24hrs.
Notes
- *Squeezing half a lemon on fish helps smoothen the strong fish-y flavour
Recipe provided by one of our Aulson Mamas.
