Sauce Graine — Print Recipe — The Culinary Codex

Rich, velvety sauce made from pounded palm fruit, simmered with smoked fish or beef, ladled generously over gozo for a deeply satisfying meal.

Ingredients

1 If using fresh palm nuts, boil them for thirty minutes until soft. Pound in a mortar, add warm water, and squeeze through a sieve to extract the thick orange cream. Discard fibre.
2 In a large pot, brown the beef cubes on all sides in a small amount of oil. Add onions and garlic, sauté until fragrant.
3 Add diced tomatoes and cook for eight minutes until they break down into a paste.
4 Pour in the palm cream and one litre of water. Stir well and bring to a boil.
5 Reduce heat and simmer for forty minutes, stirring occasionally, until the sauce thickens and the oil rises to the surface.
6 Add flaked smoked fish and chilli peppers, simmer for fifteen more minutes. Adjust salt and serve over gozo.

Did You Know?

The colour of sauce graine — deep orange-red — comes from the natural carotenoids in palm fruit.