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Malagasy Dinner
Photo: Tranofalafa
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In this material, I describe Malagasy food in general and I give some recipes from Madagascar, especially my favorite ones.
Rice is the staple of Malagasy people, and we eat rice three times a day (breakfast, lunch, and dinner). The meal is typically served with no preliminaries such as hors d'oeuvres, cocktails, or special drinks. Everything goes together on the same plate, and only spoon is used for the meal--no knife or fork. However, some people nowadays do not follow this Malagasy way anymore, due to the influence of French culture.
When we Malagasy cook rice, we heat it until the rice at the bottom of the pan is burned. And after removing the nonburned part of the rice, we pour some water into the pan, and boil it until we obtain a brown dark drink with rich aroma. We call this special drink ranonapango, and it is the only beverage that served with the dinner in Madagascar.
During a party--birthday, garden or dinner party--or to mark a special occasion such as Christmas Day, New Year's Eve, Independence Day or Easter Day, all of the family dine together and the meal that goes with the rice is always chicken. In Madagascar, the word "family" does neither mean people who live together in the same house like parents and their children nor one's next of kin, whereas it means all people who are related to each other including those who are now dead.
There are many kinds of fruits in the Island, so we usually eat some as dessert at the end of a meal. Fruits you can find in Madagascar include coconut, persimmon, berry, passion fruit, avocado, and lychee just to name a few.
I give you below some of my favorite recipes. These recipes should be served obviously with rice.
Pork and Cassava Leaves (Henakisoa sy ravitoto)
Ingredients
- pork
- garlic
- tomatoes
- gingers
- oinions
- oil
- cassava leaves (mashed)
- salt
- coconut (optional)
Directions
- Cut the pork into thick pieces
- Put them in a pot with a little water
- After 5 mn, pour some water--more than the first one but not too much
- Chop one or two cloves of garlic, tomatoes, gingers and oinions
- Stir them with the pork during 5 mn
- If the oil from the pork is not enough, add a little quantity of oil--as you like
- Put the cassava leaves in the pot
- Stir, pour some water and add some pinches of salt
- Cover the pot and boil during 15 or 20 mn
- If you can find a coconut, take some portions of coconut, chop them using a knife or a potato masher and put them into the pot
Beef and Sweet Greens (Henomby sy anamamy)
Ingredients
- beef
- garlic
- tomatoes
- oinions
- oil
- sweet greens
- salt
Directions
- Cut the beef into thick pieces
- Put them in a pot with a little water
- After 5 mn, pour some water--more than the first one but not too much
- Wash the sweet greens
- Remove the hardest parts of them
- Chop the tomatoes, gingers, oinions and one or two cloves of garlic
- Stir them with the beef during 5 mn
- Pour a little quantity of oil into the pot
- Put the greens into the pot
- Pour some water
- Cover the pot and boil during 5 mn
- Stir and add some pinches of salt
- Cover the pot and boil during 10 mn
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