Surinamese Roti
I’ve wanted to make this surinamese roti for a long time; a good and simple Surinam roti with chicken. I use chicken thighs. I do not use asparagus bean (kouseband in Dutch). I’m making roti for 2 days today. That equals food for 6 people. This dish is ready in 1 hour.
Surinamese roti à la Pisang Susu
- 1 kg of potatoes
- 5/6 eggs
- 500 grams of beans
- 700 grams of chicken thighs
- 4 onions
- 3 cloves of garlic
- half lime
- 1 tomato
- 1 chili pepper
- 5 heaped teaspoons of garam masala
- 1/2 tsp jinten
- 1 tsp ketumbar
- 1 tsp kunjit
- 3/4 stock cubes
- roti bread from the store (1 per person)
- optional: chutney and chili salsa
- Fry the onions and garlic together with the chicken thighs. The thighs do not need to be fully cooked right now.
- Add all the herbs and the tomato.
- If the meat is slightly discoloured, add the peeled potatoes.
- Stir everything well and then add some of the stock (made from the stock cubes). Do not pour in everything, but little by little so that the potatoes cook, but the sauce does not become too thin.
- Squeeze half a lime over the mix.
- In the meantime, boil the eggs until hard.
- The dish can simmer together with the chicken for at least half an hour.
- Now add the beans and let it simmer for another 10 minutes. The beans may remain crunchy.
- You can fry the cooked eggs in a pan with some oil but is not necessary.
- Serve the eggs with the roti sheets, which you also fry in the pan. You can serve it with chutney and/or Surinamese sambal.
I choose very tasty potatoes and good roti bread that I find at my supermarket. I also add 1 tomato to the sauce. It gives a nice color and the tomato provides a sour note, just like half the lime.
I get curry masala at my favorite store. Mine contains kunjit (curcumin), coriander seeds (ketumbar), ginger, cumin (jinten), cinnamon, nutmeg, pepper, cloves, allspice, fenugreek, chili, caraway and fennel. I add extra cumin, ketumbar and kunjit. I like that for the color and an even deeper flavor.
I fry the onions and garlic together with the chicken thighs. Then immediately add all the herbs and the tomato. The chicken thighs do not need to be completely cooked because we are going to simmer them with the potatoes for a long time.
If the meat is discoloured, add the peeled potatoes. I stir everything well and then add some of my stock, made from the stock cubes. Not all at once, but a little at a time. This way the potatoes cook, but the sauce does not become too thin. I also add the juice of half a lime.
Potatoes take some time, so after half an hour of gently simmering with the chicken, the beans can be added. As far as I’m concerned, these should remain a bit crunchy.
We serve my Surinamese roti with briefly fried roti sheets bought at the supermarket, Surinamese sambal (or any sambal) and boiled eggs. Also delicious are freshly chopped red onions and some chutney. Be sure to eat with your hands! :-).
