The Seychelles is an archipelagos consisting of 115 small islands and it is ideally situated in the Western Indian Ocean. Within this magnificent archipelago there are 41 granite islands and the rest 74 islands are coralline islands. Mahe, the main island is considered as the largest island of all the islands of the Seychelles. As a matter of fact the Seychelles islands are considered among one of the major tourist attraction all over the world.

Maybe you heard a lot about their mesmerising unique beaches but are you aware of the delicious creole dishes that the Seychellois make? The rich and diverse culture of the Seychelles reflects on the French, British, Africans, Asian and Indian who settled on the islands and made a new culture. You will surely enjoy and adore the food service of the Seychelles as it offers every types of food whether it is fast food, Italian food or Indian food. However the best plates of the Seychelles are the creole dishes. If you are in the Seychelles islands then you should definitely taste as much creole dishes as you can.

Recipes of famous dishes from the Seychelles

Creole rice

Creole rice is the most cooked dish in the Seychelles. The Seychellois have a culture to include rice in both lunch and dinner. The creole rice is very tasty and easy made. To accomplish a creole rice you will need ½ cup Basmati rice, ½ chopped onion, ginger, 2 chopped garlic cloves, some curry leaves, ½ chopped bell pepper (any colour), 3-4 cloves, ¼ teaspoon of cinnamon powder, ½ teaspoon of turmeric powder, 1 cup of water, 2 tablespoons of ghee and lastly add salt and pepper to taste and parsley for garnishing.

The method of cooking is quite easy: firstly you have to rinse the rice and take off all the starch on it. Heat your ghee until it become liquid, then add your onion, garlic, curry leaves, bell pepper, ginger and cloves and let it cook for at least one minute until the ingredient changeto a light brown colour. Drain the rice, add the rest of the ingredient (except the parsley) to it and then let it cook for a minimum of 20 minutes on low heat.  Then add all the ingredient together, garnish with parsley and then serve on plate with a typically creole banana curry or creole prawn curry. You may also eat it with other creole dishes also.

However some ingredient such as cloves can be easily left out. You may use a whole cinnamon instead of using its powder. Instead of using ghee you may use normal oil, the ghee just add some flavour to the rice, if you are out of parsley you may replace it with thyme which actually give the rice a good taste or you may also let the rice as it is. You may also eat the rice with no curry added to it if you wish to as it already have a really good taste.

Creole papaya salad

Most people are not really great fan of papaya right? But trust me once you taste the papaya salad you will have another perspective of the papaya. The creole papaya salad is a must! Whether you like papaya or not you should definitely taste it. It is easily prepared with tasty ingredients. To make the creole papaya salad you will need a medium peeled and grated raw papaya, an onion (thinly sliced), a tomato (thinly sliced), ½ bell pepper (thinly sliced), black pepper and parsley. For the vinaigrette a 3 tablespoon of olive oil and lime juice are needed, plus 1 ½ TB (tablespoon) of orange juice, 2 tablespoon of honey, one chopped sweet chilli or more and salt to taste.

The method is simple you just have to mix the papaya, tomato, peppers, onion and the parsley in a medium size bowl. For the vinaigrette, blend the olive oil, lime and orange juice, honey, chilli and the salt together until it becomes a nice and smooth emulsion. You may pour all the vinaigrette on the papaya and mix it before serving or simply just put it on the serving table and let each person pour their own vinaigrette. Don’t forget to add some freshly ground black pepper and if you have more parsley just put some more on the creole papaya salad.

Of course, the raw papaya stays the key ingredient of the salad but may also change some of the ingredient if you don’t have the right ingredient such as sweet chilli. You can add some chilli powder as a replacement. You may also leave the chilli if you are not a fan of spicy stuff. Follow the instructions and you may be able to enjoy a delicious homemade papaya creole salad.

Fish curry

The fish curry is the most famous dish in the Seychelles. It is one of the specialities of the Seychellois and is also the most liked dishes in the islands. Each person cook the fish curry in their own way, some might add coconut milk to it and some don’t. Here is a super tasty and copious fish curry that you will definitely enjoy. To make this fish curry you will need 200g of fish cut into cubes preferably red snapper, 1 ½ or 2 chopped onions, 100g of chopped tomatoes, 3 chopped garlic cloves, 1 to 2 table spoon of turmeric powder, 50 ml of olive oil, some curry leaves, 10 g of curry powder, 1 cinnamon leaf, 100 ml of coconut milk, fried eggplant (20 g), 1 tablespoon of lime juice, chopped parsley for garnishing and lastly salt to taste.

The method is quite easy but not rapid. Start by heating your pan at low heat, and then add curry leaved, onions and your cinnamon leaves. Stirs for a minute until it become a nice light brown. Then add your tomato and garlic the cover it, keep checking on it and stirs it. After the tomato and the garlic are cooked to nice and soft, add the curry and the turmeric powder and keep stirring it for about 2-3 minutes. Lastly add the coconut milk, the fried eggplant and of course the fried fish in the sauce and stirs it for 3-4 minutes. Then add the parsley and the lime juice for better taste. You can serve this with the creole rice and the papaya salad.