Colombo, a spice combine broadly used within the French Caribbean, offers its identify to this dish of spicy rooster balls in a coconut-curry sauce. The dish is mostly served over rice to mood its warmth. Begin off the meal with ti punch, a cocktail of rum and lime, and should you’re feeling bold you would convey out a platter of acras de morue (spicy cod fritters). Serve an avocado-tomato-cilantro salad alongside, and also you’ll really feel these commerce winds blowing.
Boulettes de poulet colombo / French Caribbean rooster balls
The phrases ‘French delicacies’ are likely to evoke basic dishes reminiscent of coq au vin, cheese soufflé and boeuf bourgignon. A lot much less typically do individuals affiliate French cooking with the delicacies of France’s farflung abroad states (départements), just like the islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique within the West Indies. Their distinctive delicacies consists of dishes like stuffed crab, fried plantain and le féroce, a fiery Creole tackle guacamole made from avocado mashed with salt cod and cassava flour, in addition to the cod fritters talked about above.
One other basic dish of these islands is le colombo, which is available in many types: with rooster, pork, fish or lobster, and goat is common, too. Coconut milk, lime juice, inexperienced onion and scorching crimson pepper (scotch bonnet or fowl’s eye) are sometimes concerned. The important ingredient, although, is the colombo spice combine, a milder model of curry powder that additionally consists of Caribbean flavors like allspice. Whereas colombo powder is broadly out there in France, it could be unattainable to search out elsewhere. However to not fear — you’ll be able to combine it your self.
As its identify implies, the colombo spice combine has roots in Sri Lanka and its primary metropolis, Colombo. It advanced from spices that had been dropped at the Caribbean by Indian and Sri Lankan laborers who had been despatched to work on the islands by the British and the French throughout a lower than superb chapter of colonial occasions. From there it made its approach again to France, the place it’s utilized in varied variations of Caribbean and Indian delicacies.
Colombo with rooster balls is each simple and enjoyable to make. You first chop skinless rooster breasts in a meals processor with onion, garlic, cilantro, scorching pepper, lime juice, salt and pepper. You then form the combination into balls and sauté them with the colombo spice combine, coconut milk, extra lime juice and just a little sugar. This course of is much more enjoyable if in case you have a glass of ti punch helpful.
Pleased cooking.
