Surinamese dish: Telo

I love to experiment with spices, herbs and unknown cuisines. It broadens your palet of choice and makes a food lover's live a little bit more exciting! Here is a recipe for the Surinamese dish: Telo

Suriname is the smallest Caribbean country in South America. In the Netherlands you find a lot of spots and places where you can eat Surinamese food. Popular in the Netherlands are buns stuffed with a surinamese recipe such as: pom, dried cod, yardlong beans and shrimps, pulled pork etc. The reason why we have a lot of Surinamese cuisine in the Netherlands, is because we have a large Surinamese population. Our awesome Fit girl sisters Iris and Ilrish are Surinamese.

A while ago I was at one of Rotterdam's famous Surinamese eating spots "Warung mini". They serve the stuffed buns and other delicious dishes. My favorite stuffed bun is the one with the cod called "Broodje Bakkeljauw". On the menu card I saw a dish with this fish and something else called cassava.

Cassava is a Brazilian Arrowroot known to be used in Caribbean kitchen. The root can be boiled, fried, steamed, baked, grilled or mashed, and is sometimes even dehydrated to form a powder to make bread or dumplings. Mostly for cooking the skin is removed and you only eat the pale white interior.

The dish was called Telo. It's the dried cod fish "Bakkeljauw" with fried cassave. Sooo tasty! Amazed by its flavours and textures I needed it to try to cook in it myself! :D

Telo: What do you need? (2 pers)

- 1 whole cassave (skin peeled of and chopped in long cubes)

- 2 tbl spoons of olive oil

- 1 dried salted cod filet

- 1 sliced garlic clove

- 1 cube sliced madame jeanette

- 2 cube sliced tomatoes

- 2 tbl spoons of tomato paste

- 1 whole cube sliced onion

- 2 tbl spoons of honey (traditionally you make it with sugar, but I wanted to use a natural sweetener)

- 1/2 lime

How to make Telo?

The Cassava. So you have rasped the cassava skin off and chopped the root in long cubes (a little bit like very thick fries). Cook the cassava in boiling water for 5 minutes so it becomes a little bit soft. After cooking them you bake the fries in a pan with 1 tbl spoon of olive oil. Normally you deepfry the cassave but I wanted to make the dish healthier and less greasy. Bake them until they are beautifully golden brown and thrown in a pinch of pepper or salt if you like that.

The Bakkeljauw. The salted dry cod fish needs to be cooked and cleaned first (the fish is sooooo salty that you need to remove some. You don't want your cholesterol to go through the roof haha). So cook the fish in boiling water, rinse it with a stream of cold water until you cleaned out all the salt. The fish is now so soft that you can tear it into tiny bits with your hand. Next. Bake the sliced onion, garlic, tomato and madame jeanette in 1 tbls spoon of olive oil. Toss them around for 5 minutes, then add the cod tomato paste and honey/sugar. Also toss this delicous mixture for around 15 to 20 minutes until the fish becomes a nice golden orange color (slightly dry). I also like to throw in a bit of lime juice.

Add some greens!! As a veggie addict I needed to add some greens in this dish. A veggie used oftenly in Surinamese cuisine is the yardlong bean. They are comparible with haricots verts but they are longer and drier. ( I could make extensions with them :P See pic -->>)

I'd love it if you guys would show me your cooking skills, so  please tag me in your pictures on Instagram! You can find me as @Fitgirltizi.