Name: Tart Vegetable Stew with Fish Balls (Sauce Pikul)
Yield: Serves 4 to 6 with rice
Cuisine: Senegal
Ingredients: 2 medium tomatoes or 4 drained canned plum tomatoes, coarsely chopped; 1 cup coarsely chopped cabbage (optional); 2 dried red chiles (see Note); 1 clove garlic, minced; ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper; ⅓ cup cider vinegar; ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper; 1 clove garlic, coarsely chopped; ½ teaspoon salt; 1 teaspoon tamarind paste or ½ Maggi cube, crumbled; 3 sprigs flat-leaf parsley, coarsely chopped; 1 scallion, coarsely chopped; ⅓ to ½ pound fish fillet (whiting or snapper), skin removed, and coarsely chopped; 1½ cups carrots, cut into 2-inch-long julienne; 1½ cups white radishes (icicle or daikon), cut into 2-inch-long julienne; About 1½ cups water; 2 teaspoons salt; 1 tablespoon tomato paste; ½ cup peanut oil; ¼ medium yellow onion, cut into long shreds

Preparation info

Serves
4 to 6
with rice

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

Seductions of Rice

By Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid

Published 1998

About

This richly flavored vegetable stew with tiny simmered fish balls has a mild chile heat, set off by the tart bite of vinegar. You can use leftover ingredients from the preparation of diebou dien, or you can make and serve the stew on its own as a simple or everyday accompaniment to plain rice.

Josie, the sister of Mariam Seck, who taught me her marvelous version of diebou dien, prepared sauce pikul as a way of teaching me a sim