The recipe for Calalou from French Guiana

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Calou or Gombo is the base of this typical Guyanese recipe. It can be found in all the markets of Guyana.

It is a very low calorie vegetable, rich in vitamins and trace elements. Its important content of mucilage (a kind of gelatine which forms in certain foods when their carbohydrates swell with water) indicates it especially for the naturally slimming diets. Its consumption is also beneficial to people who suffer from stomach aches.

To cook Guyanese Calalou, you need :

• 1 piece of bacon

• 1 piece of smoked fish

• 1 smoked chicken

• 3 pink pig tails

• 1kg of spinach

• 1 onion

• 3 cloves

• 2 tablespoons of olive oil

• 500g of okra or calous

• 1 tablespoon of chives

• 6 sprigs of chopped coriander

• 2 cloves of garlic

• 3 tomatoes

• 500g of cooked or raw shrimps

• 2 chicken stock cubes. Salt and pepper from the mill.

Preparation of the calalou :

Wash the spinach leaves and chop them roughly. Wash the okra, remove the ends and cut into 1cm slices.

Chop the onion and garlic, cut the smoked fish in 4 and the chicken in several pieces. Cut the bacon into strips, wash and dice the tomatoes. Desalt the pig tails as much as possible

In a pressure cooker put the oil, garlic and onion, the pieces of pig tails, spinach, okra, tomatoes, cloves, 2 cubes of chicken, pepper and coriander. Stir the whole and add a glass of water.

Close the pot and let simmer for 20 minutes. Add the fish, chicken and shrimp and cook for another 30 minutes. When the pork tails are tender it's done! Serve with white rice.