On August 29 in Vassy, ​​the Maecha Bora association organized a cooking competition with the star ingredients: octopus and dried fish. The women fishermen, supported by Dahari, were thus able to promote their products to the communities of the Vouani commune.

Organized in collaboration with the NGO Initiative and Development (ID), the event's objectives were to raise awareness among residents of the benefits of consuming dried seafood products (notably octopus and bonito), to share recipes and cooking secrets, to offer a fun, cultural moment and taste for young and old and above all to promote the fisherwomen and their initiative!

Nine groups of women from Maecha Bora from the three intervention villages of Dahari (Salamani, Dzindri and Vassy) competed to win the culinary competition. The teams had to show creativity and inventiveness to seduce the taste buds of the juries and make them appreciate the octopus and dried fish!

In sauce, marinated, boiled... accompanied by rice, mataba (pounded cassava leaves), bananas, cassava or coconut... Octopus and fish were presented in all possible ways, to the greatest pleasure of the public .

Finally, it was the “Nkima”, a traditional and old recipe based on cassava flour accompanied by dried octopus and coconut sauce, which was the most appreciated by the juries!

For this winning group, the manager was able to comment on the choice of recipe: “I chose “Nkima” as a meal on behalf of my group because my mother usually prepared it after learning about it from my father. Being the eldest in the family, I observed. My father would ask me to go get the ingredients, prepare them, grate the coconut and extract the milk then put it on the fire and start stirring – shwara, shwara, shwara… until the coconut milk starts to boil . This is when I added the ingredients including onions, tomatoes and spices. Once the sauce was finished, I added the dried octopus, prepared in advance (soaked in water to extract the excess salt, make it soft, put it on the charcoal fire, rinse it and cut it into small pieces) and I stirred – shwara, shwara, shwara…. And when things seemed good, I called my father: Dad, come and taste! This one said: My daughter, even your mother never knew how to prepare such a sauce for me! As I was the one dividing up the meal, I gave a large quantity to my father. And to serve him, I brought his dish to his knees on my knees to say to him: Dad, I have come to offer you this dish”…

It was to thunderous ovations that each woman in the winning group received a “bako djema” (wood-saving cooker), offered by the NGO Dahari.

During the awards ceremony, the president of Maecha Bora added: “We thank Dahari who allowed us today to do this activity and to have results never seen before. We dry octopus and fish to sell them and we can make savings which will go into the account of our Maecha Bora association, which will be able to self-manage itself over time without problem... And all of this is thanks to Dahari.”

The women fishermen really surprised the public and the juries with this innovative event! They were able to show their great motivation and determination to develop and grow their association and their activities!

Octopus and dried fish... Soon on every plate in Anjouan? To be continued… !

This project was implemented in collaboration with the NGO Blue Ventures.