This Creole chicken fricassée is a comforting and flavorful dish which, unlike the traditional fricassée, is cooked with very young wax gourd and flavoured with garlic and ginger.
- 1 large Chicken
- oil for shallow frying chicken
- 1 immature wax gourd- pousinika approximately 1kg-
- ½ onion -roughly chopped
- 1 tsp crushed ginger
- 125 ml water
- 3 cloves garlic -crushed
- 3 sprigs parsley
- 3 sprigs thyme
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- salt and pepper
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Wash chicken and cut into bite size pieces and pat dry
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Season with salt and pepper
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Heat oil in a heavy pan and shallow fry chicken pieces, until light brown.
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Remove from oil and drain and keep
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Wash the wax gourd, peel off the skin and cut into small cubes
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In a pot , that has heavy lid, add 1 tablespoon oil and sweat the onion and add ginger , garlic and sprigs of parsley and thyme and stir.
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Add the cubed wax gourd, stir and place lid on pot and steam the gourd in its own juice. Stir consistently and cook until soft, about 30 minutes
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Add the chicken and water and cook on a gentle heat for about 15 minutes. The gourd will partially break up and slightly thicken the dish
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Remove sprigs of parsley and thyme
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Season and serve frikase with plain boiled rice and a cucumber salad.
- Choose full-sized, immmature gourd with an unblemished rind or skin. If the gourd is very young, all you will need will be a potato peeler to remove the rind. However, if the fruit is mature, the rind becomes harder and you will need a sharp knife to peel it.
- Avoid overcooking the wax gourd. If you do, it will go all mushy. You still need a bit of a crunchy texture.
- If the fruit is very young you can keep the seeds but if the fruit is mature you will have to cut the seeds away and use only the flesh.