THINK of Mauritius, the Maldives and Seychelles, and chances are you imagine white sandy beaches, tropical heat and honeymooning couples. And you’d be right - but what about the food?

“People don’t really know much about that part of the world,” says Selina Periampillai - yet the incredible multiculturalism of this pocket of the Indian Ocean has created a unique cuisine made up of seemingly disparate culinary influences and styles that work in mysterious harmony.

Born and raised in Croydon, South London, Periampillai calls Mauritius her second home - her parents are from there and moved to the UK in the Seventies for work - but as a child, she spent long summers every year back on the island.

“I remember my nan cooking outside, she had a massive rock slab and used to crush spices on it with a cylinder tool - fresh spices, garlic, chilli - she would roll it and crush them every morning and cook with them that evening,” says the 37-year-old. “You can see from her arms and build today that’s what she was doing for all those years - it’s not that easy!”

So how did Mauritian cuisine come to be what it is today? “It was colonised by the Dutch, then the British came, and Chinese came over, all these people from all different cultures settled on the island,” says Periampillai. Throw Indian, French and African influences into the mix and it’s considered one of the great Creole cuisines of the world.

“We’ve ended up with biryani and curry from India and fiery hot, chilli chutneys. The Chinese set up as merchants near Port Louis [the capital] and they’re still selling dumplings on street corners, you’ll find dumpling soup and noodles in Mauritian restaurants too.”

It surprises first-timer diners, she says; it’s lighter and more fragrant than people anticipate. “People expect an Indian-style curry but we might use cinnamon to make it sweet or thyme leaves and parsley.”

In her first cookbook, The Island Kitchen, Periampillai takes you on journey, not only around the fascinatingly diverse Mauritian cuisine - think fish biryani, slow-cooked duck with cinnamon and cloves, and potato and pea samosas - but Madagascar, Maldives, Seychelles, and the lesser known Reunion, Comoros and Mayotte, and Rodrigues.

Reunion - where three-quarters of the population is said to be of mixed origin - is a seafood lover’s paradise. A speciality on the tiny volcanic Rodrigues island is a thick-crusted coconut and papaya pie, and a French horticulturalist and botanist once smuggled plants into the Seychelles that are still a huge part of the country’s cuisine today.

You might not want to eat bat curry (“A bit like chicken, quite bony but really nice”) or shark chutney (“Tangy with a squeeze of lime”) from the Seychelles, but Periampillai has drawn the line at including those recipes in the book anyway.

What’s most surprising though, is that the classic dishes of these islands, and Periampillai’s take on them (like the pineapple upside-down cake her supper club-goers rave about), are all pretty simple. It’s stews you chuck everything into and leave, curry that doesn’t take hours, and vibrant salads with sweet notes of coconut, lime or mango. “I’m all for really down-to-earth, nothing fancy, really good comfort food,” she says.

“All the family would get together for dinner and it would never be one of two dishes, the table would be full every night, bowls of curry, fresh chapatis, and lots of pickles and chutneys - the condiments of Mauritius,” Periampillai adds.

That’s the thing about this kind of food; it’s generous, comforting and, most importantly, laid-back. “It’s about enjoying the moment and taking that time out. They take it a bit slower, especially with cooking - no stress, enjoy yourself, enjoy the whole process and enjoy the food.”

And there’s a lot of outdoor cooking: “It’s a hot country, doors are wide open in kitchens, they have wood fires and get a big pot of curry or fricassee on there - it changes the flavour because you’ve got smokiness. Everyone barbecues on the beach, they’ll be a grill with fish caught that morning, with some lemon and herbs, straight on the grill - that’s the freshest thing you can eat.

“On the beach, they also sell pineapple covered in chilli salt as a refreshing snack,” Periampillai adds - a traditional dish she took inspiration from to create her tamarind pineapple chilli salt salad recipe.

Impressively, the mum-of-one hasn’t done any professional training. “Everything I’ve done with Mauritian food, I learned from my mum. She’d say, ‘This is what I used to watch my mum do in the kitchen’, so it’s been passed on like that.”

Six years ago, it dawned on Periampillai that it was difficult to find Mauritian home-cooked food in London, and she started to host supper clubs - four years after quitting her nine-to-five desk job to follow her passion for food in “one of those life-changing, risky moments”. It’s paid off though - she was named runner-up of the prestigious Jane Grigson Trust prize in March.

Now, more than anything, she wants to “spread the word” about Mauritian cuisine and maybe even inspire people to visit that part of the world too - woven between the recipes in the book are passages about each place, taking you right to bustling fishing ports or the sweet fruit of roadside stalls. “But if you can’t make it to the Islands, it’s like bringing these islands to your own home, and being able to cook it on a daily basis or on the weekend.

“It can be a bit intimidating,” Periampillai concedes,”because it’s this part of the world [that you might not know] - how do you find these ingredients?

“But I was brought up in London. You can do it in your home.”

n The Island Kitchen: Recipes From Mauritius And The Indian Ocean by Selina Periampillai is published by Bloomsbury, priced £26.00.

HOW TO MAKE SELINA PERIAMPILLAI’S MALDIVIAN TUNA CURRY

Dhon Riha celebrates two important ingredients in Maldivian cuisine: tuna and coconut.

Coconut is served at almost every meal in the Maldives, Selina Periampillai says in her new cookbook. In this dish, known as ‘Dhon Riha’ in the Indian Ocean archipelago, the tuna is enhanced with Southern Indian spices like cardamom, curry leaves and turmeric.

Unlike lots of curries this can be prepped in 15 minutes and cooked in a further 15, proving authentic Maldivian cuisine can be easier to whip up mid-week than you might have thought.

Ingredients (Serves 2-4)

500g tuna steak, cut into 2.5cm pieces

1tbsp coconut oil

4 garlic cloves, finely chopped

2 cardamom pods, seeds only, crushed

2.5cm piece of fresh root ginger, peeled and finely chopped

10 curry leaves, finely chopped

1 green chilli, finely sliced

1 onion, finely sliced

1/2tsp ground fennel seeds

1/2tsp ground cumin

1/2tsp ground turmeric

1/2tsp black pepper

400ml tin coconut milk

1 cinnamon stick

Sea salt

Coriander, to garnish

Method

1. Lightly salt the fish and set aside.

2. In a large saucepan, warm the coconut oil over a medium heat until simmering. Add in the garlic, cardamom, ginger, curry leaves and chilli. Let this saute until fragrant - usually around 30 seconds. Add the onion slices and cook until softened, around five to seven minutes. Add the rest of the spices: The fennel, cumin, turmeric and black pepper. After around a minute they will mingle together and become aromatic.

3. At this point, transfer everything into a food processor and blend to a coarse paste.

4. Return the paste back to the pan over a medium heat, pour in the coconut milk, holding back one tablespoon for drizzling at the end, and pop in the cinnamon stick and half a teaspoon of salt.

5. Bring to a simmer and gently add the fish pieces to the sauce. They will cook fairly quickly. After five minutes, the fish should be tender, opaque and cooked throughout and the curry will be ready to serve. Drizzle over the extra coconut milk, scatter with the coriander and serve with a heap of rice.

CHILLI DHAL FRITTERS. Known as ‘gateaux piments’, these are one of the most popular street food snacks in Mauritius. Selina’s book includes a recipe for a green chilli chutney that makes perfect dunking material for these little fried balls.

Ingredients

(Makes 25)

200g yellow split peas

3 spring onions, finely chopped

2tbsp finely chopped coriander

2-3 green chillies, finely chopped

1tsp salt

Freshly ground black pepper

1L vegetable oil, for deep frying

Method

1. Place the yellow split peas in a large bowl and cover with cold water. Leave to sit overnight and soak.

2. The peas should have puffed up slightly and the water reduced by the next morning. Drain them well and tip into a food processor. Blitz until the peas are a coarse paste and clump together. Tip the crushed peas into a large mixing bowl and add all the other ingredients apart from the oil. Combine well with a spoon.

3. Take a tablespoon of the mixture in your hands and, pressing firmly, form into a ball shape (about the size of a golf ball). Each will weigh around 25g and you should get 25 balls. Place them all on a plate ready to be fried.

4. Pour the vegetable oil into a deep, heavy-based saucepan or deep fat fryer and heat to 180°C. You can tell when the oil is the right temperature by dropping a small cube of bread into the oil. If it browns evenly in 30 seconds then it is ready. When the oil is hot enough, carefully drop in the balls (about four at a time).

5. The fritters should sizzle in the oil. Using a fork or a slotted spoon gently move them around so they colour evenly. It will take a couple of minutes until they are golden brown and cooked throughout. If they brown too quickly, reduce the heat slightly to make sure they cook inside.

6. Drain on a wire rack with kitchen paper underneath to catch any excess oil. Serve with coriander green chilli chutney or crushed into a crusty white baguette.