The Mauritian Food Festival was held at Dieu Donne in Franschhoek from the 27-28th of March.

Chefs Gopalakrishna Mothoosamy and Jean Christophe Potie, both from the Naiade Resorts & Hotels will be at the festival.

Ruben Moothoosamy is a leader in Mauritian cuisine. For this talented chef, cooking belongs to family tradition.

"My grandfather was famous in Mauritius for the food he cooked for Indian weddings," he recalls.

Jean-Christophe Potie is one of the many ambitious young chefs of Naïade Resorts. The young Mauritian participated in 2004 in an international culinary competition, the Grand Cordon d'Or. He won the national prize and went to Monaco to compete with international chefs.

"I love gastronomy and setting up beautiful plates," he says. "I also love to mix flavours and textures in my creations."

Here are some great recipes from these chefs:

Mauritian Vindaye

Ingredients:

Directions:

Heat up everything in a saucepan, except the fish. Stir until the sugar is melted. Bring to the boil. Put a lid on. Let simmer until the onion rings are soft. Pour over cooked fish. Cover. Let it stand overnight in the freezer. Serve the next day with fresh bread and salad. You can heat up the fish if you prefer.

Chicken Fricassé

Ingredients (serves six):

Method:

Heat oil and fry onion until transparent. Add chicken pieces, season with salt and pepper. Stir-fry until chicken pieces are lightly brown. Add tomatoes, thyme, chopped parsley and ginger and garlic mixture. Sprinkle over a little more salt and some water (half cup). Mix, cover and cook until chicken is tender. Serve with rice, lentil soup and chutney.

Duck Rougaille

Ingredients:

Method:

Fry the onions in the oil and then add the  garlic and ginger. Stir for a little while.   Add the duck legs, cloves, cinnamon stick, thyme, chilles, some salt and stir well. Leave to cook for a good little while and then add the crushed tomatoes and tomato paste. Leave to cook on low heat and add sliced peppers, salt and pepper to taste. Serve with rice, lentils or dhall.

Dhall Puri

Ingredients (serves eight):

Instructions:

Boil the dholl puri in about two cups of water with a pinch of turmeric powder and salt to taste, until well cooked but not sticky.

Strain the boiled dholl puri and reserve the boiling water for pastry use later stage.

Blend the strained dholl until well blended and fine. Note: The blend must be on the dry side rather than wet. Keep mixture aside and now work on the dough.

Sift the flour with some salt into a mixing bowl. Using the warm reserved boiling water in small quantities, gradually work the pastry until very soft but not sticky. Wrap in cling wrap and allow to rest for one hour.

Add the powdered cumin seeds to the blended dholl and some more salt to taste if necessary. Mould the dough into small balls of a size sufficient to roll out into the mixture now called poori or puri.

Using a finger make a hole into the centre of the dough balls and carefully place in one teaspoon of the dholl peas mix.

Close the hole by pushing in the sides of the dough. Roll out the dough balls in flour and using a Pastry Roller, carefully roll out into as thin circular poori as you possibly can.

Heat up a flat saucepan of a size sufficient to hold the poori and brush the pan with some oil.

Place the poori in the heated saucepan. Cook on one side until slightly risen and flip onto other side until just cooked. Note: About half a minute in all. Do not overcook or the pooris will harden.

Serve hot with blended tomato or coriander chutneys or a curry of your choice.

Hint: Dhall pooris may be wrapped individually in aluminium foil and frozen for later use. Place in microwave between kitchen papers and warm up individually for thirty seconds only.

Banana curry with shrimp

Ingredients (serves four):

Method:

Mix together powdered ingredients, ginger/garlic mixture and some water so as to make a paste. Heat oil and fry shrimps for three or four mins. Drain and keep aside. In the same oil, fry onion till transparent. Add curry paste, curry leaves and about four tablespoons water. Stir fry till moisture evaporates.

Add bananas, 125ml water and some salt. Mix, cover and cook for five to six minutes. Then add fried shimps, tomatoes and chillies. Mix, cover and cook over a low heat till gravy thickens and bananas are cooked. Remove from heat and sprinkle over coriander leaves. Serve hot with rice and tomato chutney.

To find out more about the festival click here.