Pilaf Seychellois -Plo Seselwa

This aromatic and unique Pilaf Seychellois – Plo Seselwa– is made with three meats and seasoned with turmeric and tropical spices. The dish is a medley of both textures and flavours and will certainly fully satisfy your taste buds. 

What is Pilaf ?

Pilaf is one of those culinary words that refers both to the cooking method and to the food that is cooked by that method. Pilaf is a rice dish or, in some regions, a wheat dish, the recipe of which usually involves cooking rice in stock or broth, adding spices, and other ingredients such as vegetables or meat, and employing some technique for achieving cooked grains that do not adhere. The rice attains its colour through a mix of spices specially designed for this wonderful dish and in our case through the addition of turmeric.

Pilaf- Plo- in Seychelles

We inherited the word Pilaf from the French ‘riz pilaf’. But this does not mean that they introduced the dish to the Seychelles. It was in fact introduced by the Indian traders who settled in the islands in the early years and over time was creolised  to plo.

What Rice to Use

Most Seychellois cooks prefer to use basmati rice for their plo. This is because the grains stay light, fluffy and separate. There is nothing worse than having a mushy plo. However, other types of long-grain rice can also be used.

Do I have to WASH THE RICE?

Washing of rice is recommended, although not necessary. The main reason for this is to wash away all surface starch that may be in the rice. This step was critical in the early years where most rice had a lot of surface starch. But this is not the case anymore. I do however rinse the rice to remove any unwanted debris and particles.

We also prefer to sauté our rice first with the aromatics, before any liquid is added. This tends to make the pilaf more flavourful. However, if you are using a rice cooker this may not be possible.

Once the pilaf is cooked, we let it rest, covered, for a minimum of 15 minutes. This final steaming ensure that the grains come out fluffy and separate.

Origin of Pilaf

Pilaf is a dish that is common to many countries with each one having its own repertoire of pilaf and its own style of cooking with names ranging from … Polao, Pela, Pilav, Pallao, Pilau, Pelau, Pulao, Pulaav, Palaw, Palavu, Plov, Palov, Polov, Polo, Polu, Kurysh, Fulao, Fulaaw, Fulav, Fulab to Osh…. There are however, two theories about the origin of Pilaf.

Is it of Indian Origin?

One theory is that it is of Indian origin. It is believed that the earliest forms of our modern word Pilaf are the Indo Aryan words ‘Pula,’ (meaning a dish of rice & meat) and / or ‘Pulāka’ (from the Sanskrit meaning a lump of boiled rice). ‘Pulāka’ would have become ‘pulao’ in some later Indian languages. Now, ‘pulaka’ does not actually mean pilaf in Sanskrit; it means “shriveled or blighted or empty or bad grain,” which doesn’t sound very promising. However, it comes from the Sanskrit verb that means “to stand on end” (as in “my hair stood on end”), so conceivably it could have been applied to a dish where rice cooked up in distinctly separate grains.

Is it of Persian Origin?

The other theory stipulates that it is of Persian origin. The actual word ‘Pilaf’ is commonly claimed to be a product of Ancient Persia, which bordered ancient India and probably imported rice farming around 1000 B.C. to 500 B.C., The first surviving use of the word Pilaf is the ancient Persian word “Pilāv” which describes a dish where grains are boiled .

It was then spread to Spain. The Spaniards brought it to Mexico, from where it spread further into South America. It was also brought to the Caribbean by labourers from western India, and as mentioned earlier, ultimately transferred to the Seychelles by Indian settlers.

What makes Seychellois Pilaf-Plo Seselwa- unique?

The Seychellois plo is unique in that it contains at least three types of meat. These traditionally include fried chicken, salted pork and local sausage and flavoured turmeric and other tropical spices. These additions give the pilaf a medley of both textures and flavours. Although seafood pilaf is popular in some European countries, especially Turkey, where fish pilaf is preferred over meat pilaf, it is not traditionally done in Seychelles. The Seychellois plo also does not have chilli, which is served separately.

When is the pilaf-plo– served?

The plo is a dish that was normally consumed during weekends amongst Seychellois families.  The main reason for this is that meat was rarely consumed during the weekdays because it was very expensive and not easily accessible. The tradition has now disappeared, and plo is cooked at any time.

Traditional Cooking of Pilaf

The pilaf in Seychelles is traditionally cooked in a cast iron pot- marmit– that has a heavy lid. The lid assists in the steaming of the rice. The cast iron pot spreads the heat evenly and minimises the burning of the rice. When the rice burns, it creates what the local called lapang which is in fact scorched rice.

Lapang derives for the Malagasy word ‘pangoro’, which means ‘the burnt rice which sticks to the bottom of a cooking-pot’. Because the cooking temperature of modern electric rice cookers is precisely controlled, lapang does not usually form naturally during the cooking process.

I enjoy Lapang!

As a young boy I use to fight over lapang. It was a delicacy for us. We would scrape the bottom of the cast iron pot for any large chips of crispy-chewy rice.  I must admit, I still enjoy it to this day served with the sauce of tuna curry cooked in coconut milk and flavoured with cinnamon.

How do we prepare the Pilaf

There are three steps to prepare the pilaf:

Step 1 -the chicken.

Cut the chicken into bite size. Season with salt and pepper. Heat oil in a medium size pan, gently add chicken pieces and fry until golden brown. Once fried, remove the chicken from oil and transfer into a bowl and keep.

Step 2 -prepare the sausages.

There is a sausage- sosis local– , (photo below) that is prepared in Seychelles that is ideal for the plo, but any continental sausage will do. Quickly rinse the sausages in running water and pat dry. Do not cut. Heat some water in a small pot and add the sausages and cook for about 10 minutes.

Remove them from the cooking liquor, allow them to cool and cut into bite size portions and keep. I suggest you keep the cooking liquor to be used as stock for the dish instead of water.

Step 3 -prepare salted pork.

 If you have difficulty to access salted pork why not make your own. The simple process is detailed here . Place your  salted pork in a bowl and wash it to remove all surface salt. You then soak it in fresh water for about 2 hours. After you have soaked it, remove it from soaking liquid and wash it very thoroughly under running water to further remove any surface salt.

Transfer to a pot and add about one litre of water and gently simmer for about 20 minutes. Remove the pork from cooking liquor, allow it to cool and cut into bite-size portions.

I suggest that you keep the cooking liquor to use as stock for the dish instead of water . This is because the flavour secret of the dish is using the cooking liquor in which the salted pork was cooked. A word of advice here. If the cooking liquor is too salty, use it in moderation.

Finishing the pilaf

You may choose to cook your pilaf in a heavy cooking pot or in a rice cooker. I have detailed the procedure for both below:

Finishing pilaf in heavy cooking pot

Heat a medium size pan and lightly toast the cardamom, cloves, cumin seeds, mustard seeds and roughly crushed coriander seeds for no longer than 2 minutes. Transfer to a bowl. Add oil to a heavy medium size pot and stir in the onion, ginger and then add , curry leaves and chopped thyme, and fry for a minute or so.

Add washed rice and turmeric and stir thoroughly so that all spices and the oil coat the rice. Then add about 400ml of the cooking liquor, stir in the meats and bring to a simmer and cover the pot. Use low to medium heat so as to avoid burning the rice. If the cooking liquor is too salty, blend in with some water.

After about 10 minutes, stir in the remaining 200ml of cooking liquor and cook for about 20 minutes or until rice is cooked. You may have to adjust the water quantity to cook the rice to your desired preferences

Finishing pilaf in rice cooker

Heat a medium size pan and lightly toast the cardamom, cloves, cumin seeds, mustard seeds and roughly crushed coriander seeds for no longer than 2 minutes. Transfer to a bowl.

Add oil to the pan and stir in the onion, ginger and then add turmeric, curry leaves and chopped thyme, and fry for a minute or so.

Transfer all the aromatics to a rice cooker and stir in the rice, the three meats and cooking liquor and start the cooking process. Allow rice to continue cooking until ready.  Immediately after rice is cooked, open rice cooker. You will find that the chicken pieces, pork and sausage pieces will have floated to the top.  Taking great care, carefully mix all the ingredients together so as to obtain a uniform mix. Close rice cooker and allow to rest covered for about 15 minutes.

Serving the Pilaf

When ready, transfer the pilaf onto a warm serving dish, and sprinkle with the chopped coriander leaves. It is ideally served hot with a vegetable achar and freshly made chilli sauce .

Did you make this recipe?

I hope you will enjoy cooking this dish. Please let me know how it turned out for you. If you have a different version of the recipe or have related questions, please leave your comments below.

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