This Fricassée of Chicken with young Pumpkin- Frikase Poul ek Zironmon Tann-is a comforting and flavourful dish made with shallow fried chicken cooked with very young pumpkin and flavoured with garlic and ginger.
- 1 medium chicken
- ½ kg young ( immature) pumpkin (note1)
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1 tsp fresh crushed ginger
- 3 cloves garlic, crushed
- 250 ml water
- Oil for shallow fry
- 1 tbsp oil for fricasse
- Salt and pepper
- 1 small bouquet garni of thyme and parsley
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Wash chicken and cut into bitesize pieces and pat dry and season with salt and pepper
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Heat oil in a heavy pan and shallow fry the chicken pieces, until light brown.
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Remove from oil and drain.
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Wash the pumpkin, remove the seeds, peel off the skin and cut into small cubes
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In a pot, add the oil and sweat the onion. Add the pumpkin, stir and add water and cook until soft.
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Roughly mash the pumpkin in the pot
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Add the chicken, ginger and garlic, and bouquet garni and give it a good stir.
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Cook on a gentle heat for about 15 minutes. The dish should have a thick consistency.
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Remove bouquet garni and season.
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Serve frikase with plain boiled rice and a cucumber salad or any salad of your choice
- The preferred pumpkin for this dish is young Jap Pumpkin. This is because it has a nutty-sweet flavour and is not sweet. It is also more savoury orientated and a great absorber of other flavours.
- Refer to write up in the post regarding other types of pumpkin you can use.
- The Seychellois frikase is always cooked with young or immature pumpkin. Ripe pumpkin tends to have more sugar than young pumpkin and consequently will have a more developed sweetness that will overpower the dish and will neutralise the effect of the garlic, ginger and onions. Young pumpkin , on the other hand, has less developed sweetness and has the capacity to absorb the flavour of the herbs and spices.