Trondro Malagasy - Coconut Fish from Madagascar

And now for some Malagasy (Malgache)!

Ingredients (Ny zavatra ilaina)

Faly mifankahita aminao eto amin'ny fandaharana ity indray!!

Hahandro sakafo Malagasy aho izay fomba fahandro Sakalava -- trondro amin'ny voanio sy tamotamo. Ny Sakalava dia anaran'ny loko lehibe any amin'ny faritra andrefanan'i Madagasikara.

If you would like an aromatic smell in your house today, cook this dish. The fresh turmeric (tamotamo), ginger (sakamalao), onions (tongolobe), garlic (tongolo gasy), and coconut milk (ranom-boanio) blend to create the alluring fragrance. This particular dish originates in the Sakalava region of the beautiful island of Madagascar (Western Coast). See the map to the left we edited from a wikipedia map we saw from Lemur Baby.

And although the dish is Sakalava, we used the Merina language of the Central Highlands for this video, what is normally referred to as "Standard Malagasy" (lavender on map). If you are Sakalava, and would like to provide a Sakalava rendition for people to compare, please write us at chefrafi.com.

Fresh Turmeric

The secret to this dish is the use of fresh turmeric (tamotamo). Just be careful because turmeric stains things yellow. Don't wear white when cooking with this tuber!
You'll learn in the video how to differentiate turmeric from ginger (sakamalao). When the coconut cream becomes too thick, we can thin it with rice water (starchy water from the first rinsing) or just regular water.


So here are the ingredients for your shopping list:

1 kg fresh fish (trondro), 2 tomatoes (voatabia), 1 green pepper (sakaibe), parsley or cilantro to garnish (persila), 250mg coconut milk (ranom-boanio), 1 onion (tongolobe), 5 slices of ginger (sakamalao), 2 garlic cloves (tongolo gasy), turmeric (vovoka tamotamo), salt (sira), pepper (dipoavatra), lemon juice (ranom-boasary makirana kely), and cooking oil (menaka).

    This video will show you how to mix the ingredients:

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Hanomboka ny fandraohana isika!

1. Sasao madio tsara amin’ny rano mangatsiaka ny trondro.
2. Rarao ranom-boasary makirana kely, sy sira ary dipoavatra ny trondro, saromy ary avelao hilona adin’ny roa ary apetraka ao anatin’ny vata fampangatsiahina.
3. Tetehina madinika ny tongolo gasy sy ny tongolobe.
4. Didio ny voatabia
5. Kikiso ny sakamalao
6. Arotsahy ao anaty vilany lehibe misy menaka mafana ny tongolo be ary ny tongolo gasy voatetika.
7. Aratsay ny sakamalao.
8. Ampio vovoka tamotamo, arotsay ny voatabia ary aleo hitanika mandritra ny minitra vitsi-vitsy. Manampy amin’ny fiadiana ny virosy sy ny mikraoba ny tamotamo!
9. Ampio ranom-boaniho sy rano eran’ny vera.
10. Haroina amin’ny sotrobe hazo.
11. Apetraka amin’ny izay ny trondro ary arotsaka ireo sakaibe voatetika.
12. Aleo hitanika manditra ny dimy minitra mandarapa marihitra ny ranom-boanio.
13. Rehefa masaka ny trondro dia asio sira sy dipoavatra, ary rarao persila voatetika sy ranom-boasary makirana kely raha tianao.

Mazotoa homana e! Tena matsiro ka!

Eat with warm rice - Hano miaraka amin'ny vary mafana.

Sinigang na Baboy - Philippine Tamarind Soup - Kamyás

Sinigáng, a sour soup made with fish, shrimps or pork, is an excellent contender for the national dish of the Philippines. The flavors scream for the homeland and bring back nostalgic memories. Most Filipino cooks use MSG-laden premixed packages to make this delicious soup. Not Chef Rafi. He will show you how to create sinigang from scratch, using only fresh ingredients.

Tamarind or kamyás are common souring agents for this soup.

This dish is normally soured using tamarind fruit (sampalok), which can be substituted by unripe guavas (bayabas), kamyas (pias) or kalamansi. In the video, you'll see Chef Rafi prepare the taro and tamarind for this unique Filipino soup. His unique innovation to this classic recipe is that he uses red rice from Madagascar instead of white rice from the Philippines for the starchy rice broth. The subtle difference in flavor is a definite improvement.

Philippine Souring Agents:
Kamyas (Ilocano piás) is probably the most exotic ingredient here. The scientific name is Averrhoa bilimbi with the common English name of tree sorrel. If you're in an Indian market, ask for bilimbi. Chef Rafi used tamarind in the video instead of kamyás to sour the sinigáng. In the Southern Visayan Islands of the Philippines, they use yet another souring agent for sour stews - batwan. Chef Rafi will cook with this in a future video with his Hiligaynon Ilonggo friends.

Tagalog kamyás; Ilocano piás

Taro (Tagalog gábi; Ilocano ába) is used to thicken the broth (pampalapot). Do not overcook it or it will disintegrate and you won't be able to taste the delicious soup soaked into this flavorful root crop.

Here's your shopping list for this dish: garlic, onions, pork (or fish or shrimp), tamarind, tomato, fish sauce, okra, Chinese cabbage (bok choy/petsay), eggplant (optional), string beans (Tagalog sítaw, Ilocano utóng), and non-spicy chili pepper.

And here's your Filipino phrase for the day:
masaráp na sabáw (delicious broth in Tagalog)
naímas a digó (delicious broth in Ilocano)

The fancy bok choy chef Rafi used here gives this sinigáng a unique appearance.

Watch the video to cook sinigáng with Chef Rafi.

 

Chef Rafi thanks his Uncle Carlos for the beautiful photography of the Philippine flora.

Philippine Beef Lumpia (Lumpiang Baka)

No Filipino party is complete without the traditional Philippine lumpia (egg roll). The most important thing to remember about cooking authentic lumpia is to ONLY USE the extra thin, Philippine-made wrapper (balat ng lumpia). If you're going to use the thick, square Chinese wrappers, you are sacrificing both flavor and health. Flavor, because those wrappers are too starchy and don't crunch as well, and health, because they serve as sponges to soak up oil. Oil is for cooking, not consuming. Yes, the thick Chinese wrappers are easier to pull apart, but the extra two seconds is really worth the effort. You are worth those extra seconds!

I don't mean to advocate this particular brand, but here are examples of Philippine-made lumpia wrappers. They should say "product of the Philippines" and be extra thin like Greek filo (or phyllo) dough. You can buy them by the box: pre-separated (about 30 pieces), or "separate yourself" (50 pieces).

Make sure after the beef is cooked with the vegetables, that it is as dry as possible to prevent liquid from creating holes in the lumpia wrappers. I use a strainer to remove the excess liquid created from the cooking of the vegetables. You should also remove the excess grease from the cooked beef before adding the vegetables.

This award winning recipe for Philippine beef lumpia won first prize in a cooking competition in Bethesda, Maryland. Want to try this recipe? Here is the shopping list: Ground beef, garlic, corn, mung bean sprouts (do not use soy bean sprouts), carrots, cabbage, onion, snow peas (sitsaro), and lumpia wrappers (balat ng lumpia). Some people also add raisins and/or jicama (singkamas). We don't.

To learn make and wrap lumpia, watch the video here. And remember, NO MSG is needed for this dish.

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Maraming salamat po sa inyong pananangkilik.
Chef Rafi
chefrafi.com

Eating fish in Iceland - Fiskur Saelkerans

Fish is not ordinarily a favorite food for young Western palates. We were hoping to help change this general attitude by introducing recipes such as this to our ichthyophobic friends. In this episode, we'll not only share with you a traditional Icelandic fish casserole recipe for Fiskur Saelkerans, but we'll also show you an Icelandic fish factory where many kinds of delicious local fish are processed for both local and international consumption.

Fish processing in a chilly Icelandic factory to keep the fish fresh

We'll also visit a traditional pre-electric Icelandic kitchen, a commercial fishing vessel in the Icelandic fishing village of Sandgerði and you'll get a glimpse of the beautiful Icelandic topography enjoyed by the Icelanders who relish this dish.

There is no lack of fishing grounds on this beautiful island.

Will your picky children give fish a chance with this recipe? Try it and let us know! We think the cheese, cream and tomato seasoned with thyme will be of great help to proselytize their palates.

You can also check out the beautiful rainbow we captured over Gulfoss falls.

This video was filmed in Icelandic and English. The Icelandic is subtitled in English and the English is close captioned.

Chef Rafi will show you a traditional Icelandic kitchen in this episode.

Stay tuned for more of our adventures in this exotic land of volcanoes, glaciers, waterfalls, horses, fire and ice! Our next Icelandic episode will share the rich culinary heritage of this island as well as the amazing topography that continues to attract visitors from the world over.
 As they say in Iceland: Verði þér að góðu - Bon Appétit!

Watch the video here:

Ingredients needed for this recipe: 

   From the pantry - potato flour, salt, thyme, pepper, tomato paste
   For the grocery - 5 skinless fillets (Icelanders commonly use cod or haddock), 1.5 dl cream (3/4 cup); grated gouda cheese (1/2 cup/100g)

Hanging fish out to dry for local and international consumption. Can you take the smell?

Dried fish heads are exported to African countries for use in flavoring stews and local dishes. It's much tastier than it looks and smells.

Introducing: Chef Rafi Cooks the World

This blog will serve as an introduction and information sharing venue for the Chef Rafi YouTube channel - a culture-focused travel channel where young Chef Rafi guides us on his EXOTIC trips and culinary ADVENTURES, sharing his family's and friends' recipes and unique, traditional ingredients. Unlike other international cooking shows, he only uses natural ingredients: no flavor enhancers, MSG, or commercial mixes. Many foreign recipes are presented in the appropriate language (with English subtitles) to reach their heritage audience and to enhance their local flavor. Chef Rafi hopes they can also serve to help language learners acquire their target language in a cultural setting. Maybe one day there will be a way to share the alluring, appetizing aromas that accompany his creations. Visit ChefRafi.com for the videos.