Seychellois Creole Sauce- Lasos kreol

This  Seychellois Creole Sauce is a flavoursome sauce made with tomatoes, capsicum, onions, and garlic, along with herbs and chilli. A  perfect accompaniment for grilled or pan-fried  fish .

Traditionally, the Seychellois enjoy grilling fish over charcoal embers and there is a tendency for the fish to get a bit dry. The creole  sauce brings some moisture back to the fish as well as adding this extra flavour dimension to the dish.

This  creole sauce can be cooked without chilli or with as much chilli as you can bear. You have full control on how spicy you want it by adding or reducing the amount of chilli or the type of chilli you use.  I like mine full strength. I also tend to make this sauce an hour or two ahead of time, this allows the flavours to blend.

Although the creole  sauce can be eaten with rice as a vegetarian dish, in a Seychellois kitchen it is, traditionally, never prepared to be eaten as a main dish. It is always prepared to be added to a grilled, pan fried  or a baked fish. It is also never served with a meat dish.

The creole sauce is a sauce that at times creates a lot of controversy . It is a sauce that is  not in the list of classical dishes with exact recipes and therefore there is no authentic recipe for it.

In fact, the creole sauce is featured in most lands and islands that were colonised by the French. It is featured in Louisiana, in the Caribbean, in most of the Indian Ocean Islands. The basics , ripe tomatoes, garlic, green peppers ginger and herbs, are always the same but there is a great variety in taste and texture. For example, in Louisiana they add cream and butter for a smooth texture and in Mauritius they add cumin and coriander for that extra spice kick …

This recipe is how I’ve learned to make the dish or how I like it and I am confident that you will enjoy it.

Preparing the dish

The creole sauce is a very simple dish to put together. Start off by slicing the green pepper, onion, tomato, and finely chop or crush your garlic and ginger , chilli, and chop your parsley. You may choose to dice your tomato, green pepper and onion and this will give you a more refined finish, but the traditional method is to slice them. If you cannot access fresh tomatoes you may use canned diced tomatoes .

The next step is to  heat the  oil in a medium size pan and add crushed garlic and ginger until fragrant, about one minute. Then add all the other ingredients and cook on low heat for about 5 minutes.  You will end up with a creole sauce with a little bit of crunch.

Remember to fish out the the thyme stems  and quatre-épices leaves and discard.

Traditional variations

Some cooks like their sauce to be reduced  with the ingredients becoming very soft.  If this is your preference, cook your sauce on very gentle heat for about 20 minutes, with the lid ajar on the sauce pan.

Although the traditional creole sauce is not thickened with flour, in days gone by when tomatoes were expensive, some families would add flour to the sauce to give it more volume, especially if the family was large.  You may choose to add some if you prefer to bind the sauce to give it a thicker texture. You may even choose to add some tomato purée instead of flour. It will also give you a similar finish.

You can certainly make your creole sauce in advance and keep it in a sealed container in the fridge for a few days. All you need to do is to heat it up and serve it when you’re ready to add the classic creole flavour to your grilled fish.

Here is your recipe for Creole Sauce-Lasos Kreol

Did you make this recipe?

I hope you will enjoy preparing 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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