My idea of comfort food, the Mauritian way, is to prepare some ‘gato frire’ (potato and bread slices dipped in batter and deep fried) and ‘chatini pomme d’amour’ (tomato salsa or chutney). The last time I ate ‘gato frire’ was back in July when we were in Mauritius. We ate them every time we were in Port Louis. It’s hard to resist when you see a vendor at the corner of the street, deep frying them on the spot. So good when just fried!
This past week, it has been rainy and cloudy every day including the weekend. On Friday night, it poured pretty much all day and night. I went shopping after work and of course got caught up in the heavy rain, coming back home. Anyway, Sunday was just another dreary day and it was a perfect day for ‘gato frire’. As soon as we came back from grocery shopping, Chris and I started preparing them for lunch… and dinner. Chris made the ‘chatini’ and I prepared the batter. For the batter, I just use Korean batter mix, add some Besan flour, salt, yellow food coloring, spring onions and water. It was ready in minutes. The deep frying is what takes longer but I used a large pot this time and I am sure it cut the time in half. Since I used so much oil for the deep frying, I also fried some ‘chipek’ (prawn crackers). We usually eat those when we celebrate the Chinese New Year but I had two boxes sitting in the pantry and I thought why not. These are delicious too and can be addictive.
So lunch was eating ‘gato frire’ and ‘chipeks’. Dinner was the same for me as I was not too hungry and didn’t really cook anything else. Leftovers didn’t seem very attractive to me either! Hubby did have the leftover spanish rice, fish and pork ribs though. I’m like my grandfather, he never used to like eating leftovers. Some dishes are best the next day such as ‘Niouk Yens’ (pork and choco dumplings). Chinese stir fried dishes are worse the next day.
For once we did not spend all of Sunday afternoon cooking for the week. I could not be bothered. We will just have to find quick and simple dishes to make such as spaghetti and meatballs or macaroni with corned beef. Macaroni and corned beef is a mauritian pasta dish. We use elbow macaroni and to the boiled pasta, we add canned corned beef cooked in onions and tomatoes. Simple and delicious!
FOR THE BATTER
Korean frying flour mix
Garlic powder
Onion powder
Salt
Yellow food coloring
Spring onions chopped
Warm water
Mix all ingredients together in a smooth batter.
Dip potato, eggplant or bread slices into batter and deep fry until golden
