(67) Comoros – Mbawa Ya Tomati

Today I make up for my spacy posts and do have a double post day. We head back to Africa to an island country I had never heard of..

The old harbour of Moroni, Grand Comore, Comoros. Source: Lifestyle – Michael Runkel /Robert Harding World Imagery / Corbis

Comoros is a volcanic archipelago made up of three major islands and several smaller situated in the Indian Ocean superior to Madagascar. Like Madagascar, it is a large producer of vanilla production (coming in second) and also exports the most ylang-ylang in the world (which is often used in perfume essence). French, Arabic, and Comorian are the three primary languages spoken here. Mount Karthala is an active volcano on the largest island of Comoros, Grande Comore island. If you are interested in visiting Comoros you may want to try scuba diving and snorkeling since it has some of the biggest coral atolls and diverse marine wildlife.

The cuisine of this smaller African country consists of several local ingredients including coconut, mango, pineapple, cassava and plantains. Fresh seafood is more commonly used as the protein of their meals, however chicken and goat is used as well. Rice, beans, and other grains also accompany their meals. For Comoros I made a dish that is better known as a popular street food mbawa ya tomati or chicken wings with tomatos. If you wish to try this dish you can find the recipe here.

This was yet another recipe I found easy to follow and did not require fancy ingredients. I found it difficult to find a cooking pan/pot that would fit all of the chicken, the cast iron wok is what I ended up using. To break up the meat focused meal I added a side salad.

Comoros brought us another flavorful sauce which was well absorbed by the rice and coated the crisp chicken wings. The sauce (from the liquid smoke since we didn’t have smoked paprika) was very BBQ-esque. It was simple yet delicious, something we can’t get enough of- we rated it 8/10.

Australia Day 3 – Prawns not on the Barbie..

G-day mate! The third dish I will be preparing is prawns on the barbie. Unfortunately, it being winter in Maine, I will be unable to use my grill. Grilling is a preferred way in Australia to prepare meals, especially when the weather is warm. In Maine we too love to grill, but with an apartment set up grilling in the winter doesn’t work out. I will try my best to bring a grill essence to the meal.

But first a little vocabulary..

Barbie is Australian slang for grill and prawn is referring to shrimp. Prawns are popular around Christmas time, however Americans on average eat more than Aussies!

Fun fact: The phrase “put another shrimp on the barbie” originally came from a commercial made by the Australian Tourism Commission in 1984. Paul Hogan starred in this ad and first said this line. Come to find out the phrase isn’t all that accurate as you now know shrimp is referred to as prawns!

Source: News.com.au

Also a little side note- you all need Camp Mix in your life. I put it on EVERYTHING, it’s very versatile! I used it for my salt & pepper seasoning for this dish. It can be found occasionally at Reny’s, but if not you can find it here.

I sautéed the veggies and shrimp to give them a grilled vibe for this dish. I saved the marinade to cook the veggies in to bring it all together. We thought it was a nice, refreshing dish that I could see Ian BBQing in the near future. Another good rating of 7/10..

The last meal we will be bringing to you this week is the Aussie Burger🍔 I hope you are ready for a hefty burger with everything, but the kitchen sink.