Rougail Saucisse

I absolutely love this Creole spicy sausage & tomato dish from Reunion Island, located in the Indian Ocean, not far from Madagascar. Although the island belongs to France, it is an incredibly diverse island and the local Creole food certainly reflects that, with influences from Africa, India, China & Europe. I had the fortune of living on this beautiful island for 5 years, and in that time I truly enjoyed discovering its incredible cuisine. The Reunionese have a particular smoked sausage that they use for this dish but I have been able to recreate it using other smoked sausages or Toulouse sausage, which is more readily available here in France. As is the case with many Creole dishes, it is accompanied by rice, 'grains' (lentils, white beans or kidney beans) & 'rougail' which is a chutney style side dish made with fresh chillies, raw onion, oil and either tomatoes, cucumber or even lemon.

4 Servings

Ingredients for Rougail Saucisse:

8 smoked sausages

3-10 chillies (depending on what you can handle)

3 onions, finely sliced

8 tomatoes, finely diced

Instructions for Rougail Saucisse:

Stab each sausage a couple of times on each side & boil for 10 minutes. Drain and cool before slicing into 1cm pieces.

Crush chillies in a mortar with rock salt, until the consistency of a paste.

Fry sausages with oil for minutes, stirring regularly, until slightly crisp.

Add onions & fry 3-5 minutes, until onions begin to soften.

Add chillies & tomatoes.

Stir well and scrape the bottom of the pan as the tomatoes begin to cook.

Cover & simmer on medium low 20 minutes, stirring regularly.

Ingredients for Bean side dish:

1/2 onion, finely chopped

1 clove of garlic, finely chopped

1 tsp grated ginger

500gr drained kidney beans

A sprig of thyme

1 tsp turmeric

S&P

Instructions for the Kidney Bean side dish:

Simmer garlic, onion & ginger 3 minutes with a little oil.

Add kidney beans, thyme, turmeric, S&P.

Pour in just enough water to cover the beans & simmer on medium low 15-20 minutes.

Ingredients for the Rougail Tomate side dish:

1/2 onion, finely chopped

2-4 chillies, finely chopped

1 large tomato, finely diced

1 tbsp oil

S&P

Instructions for the Rougail Tomate side dish:

Simply combine all ingredients.