WATCH: Fried Lampuki And Pumpkin Pie – Here’s How To Whip Up Some Tasty Maltese Dishes For The Colder Months
Honestly, is there anything more comforting than a warm, home-cooked meal on a rainy day? Or on any day for that matter? And the only thing that makes it better is when that meal is made out of traditional ingredients that make you feel extra nostalgic.
With that in mind, we’ve teamed up with the Agriculture Directorate within the Ministry for the Environment, Sustainable Development and Climate Change to come up with some traditional Maltese recipes for some tasty dishes.
First off, we’ve got some Fried Lampuki
Lampuki is a type of fish known in English by names such as the dorado, dolphinfish or the mahi-mahi. You can find lampuki in and around the waters surrounding Malta and Gozo and is usually in season between August and December, making it the perfect Autumnal dish.
Here’s everything you need to make a tasty fried lampuki dish:
- Flour
- Semolina
- Parsley
- Salt and pepper
- Lampuki fillets
All you need to do is mix the dry ingredients together and coat the fillets with the mixture. Pan-fry the fillets in some olive oil until they brown and serve while still warm.
And if you’re not one for fish, maybe the Pumpkin Pie is for you
Halloween might be over, but pumpkin pie is forever. Known as qargħa ħamra, pumpkin is in season mainly in the colder months during autumn and winter.
They are sowed in open fields in June and are harvested in September. They have a long shelf life and can be stored for up to 8 months. Every year roughly 500 tonnes are harvested in Malta.
You can do loads of things with pumpkin: soup, roast, pie, cakes… you name it. We’ve put together a recipe for a traditional Maltese pumpkin pie for you to make at home. Here’s what you’ll need;
- Pumpkin
- Tomatoes
- Mint
- Onion
- Garlic
- Anchovies
- Black olives
- Canned tuna
- Raisins
- Rice
- Salt and pepper
- Short-crust pastry
It may sound like a lot of ingredients, but it’s super simple to put together. Once you have everything chopped and diced, simmer it in some olive oil and mix it all together. Line a dish with the pastry, flatten the filling inside, cover with some more pastry, and bake in the oven.
The Ministry’s Agriculture Directorate wants to celebrate our food and heritage, so they’re putting together an official database called ‘The National Register of Traditional Agro food products of Malta”.
It’s basically a food Bible that details the ideal way to prepare meals using traditional Maltese agricultural food products.
They’re collecting recipes from the public in the search for best traditional recipes. So if you think you’ve got a great recipe for a traditional Maltese dish, submit it here.