«Diri Frida»

(Rice with Muttonhead)

The following recipe comes from Frida Grisini, a lady who sells muttonhead delicacies at her kiosk at the Place des Herbes in the centre of Port Louis. Fridi Grisini jokingly calls this rice preparation «Diri Pizza» or «Diri Italien» – because the colours of the capers, rice grains and tomatoes (green-white-red) are those of the Italian flag. We have named this dish «Diri Frida» after her because she concocted the dish. As muttonhead is difficult to find in middle Europe (it is not part of contemporary European cooking), we have experimented a bit. We found that the rice lends itself perfectly to being cooked with other types of lamb, as long as the meat is not dry. It can also be cooked with pork, boneless chicken or with prawns (the last of which can turn out quite nice, indeed). We also came up with a surprisingly delicious result with canned tuna fish and therefore recommend it as a successful replacement for muttonhead.

Preparation

1. Heat oil, add onions and rice.

2. When the rice is warm (after about 5 minutes), add white wine and bring to a boil.

3. Add chicken stock and tomatoes and cook for some more time on low heat.

4. Add capers, muttonhead or tuna, and Mamme and cook for another 20 minutes, till the rice has soaked up most of the liquid.

5. Remove pan from the stove and allow the rice to stay for 5 minutes.

TIPP

If you want the rice spicier, you can, at the end, add some black pepper, preferably freshly crushed in a mortar.

[Translated from German by Gunvanthi Balaram]

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