Recipes & Pairings

Recipes & pairings

Quick answer:Madagascar spices and vanilla work as well in desserts as in savory dishes. This page gathers our best pairing ideas by product, from everyday meals to festive menus.

Good cooking, good products, and simple recipesthat truly showcase the spices.

Vanilla: sweet and savory

  • Vanilla custard : 50 cl milk, 1 split bean, 4 egg yolks, 60 g sugar. Infuse 15 min, cook until it coats the spoon.
  • Vanilla seared salmon : a fillet coated in olive oil, vanilla seeds and salt. 4 minutes in the oven at 100 °C.
  • Vanilla vinaigrette : olive oil, balsamic vinegar, 1 tsp vanilla extract. On tomatoes or roasted beetroot.

Cinnamon

  • Thin apple tart : sliced apples, brown sugar and cinnamon, 25 min at 200 °C.
  • Lamb and apricot tagine : onion, lamb, cinnamon, ginger, dried apricots, honey. 1 h 30 on low heat.

Curry and spice base

  • Coconut chicken curry : chicken, onion, fresh ginger, 1 tbsp curry, coconut milk. 30 min on low heat.
  • Red lentils with spice base : onion, spice base, red lentils, tomato, coconut milk. 25 min.

Voatsiperifery and black pepper

  • Voatsiperifery pepper sauce : brown stock, cream, ground voatsiperifery added at the end of cooking. For a duck breast.
  • Black pepper steak : grind generously, sear 2 min per side, deglaze with cognac.

Combava

  • Salmon carpaccio with combava : thinly sliced salmon, olive oil, fleur de sel, combava powder.
  • Lemon and combava sorbet : 50 cl water, 200 g sugar, juice of 4 lemons, ½ tsp combava. Churn.

Pili pili chili

  • Sausage rougail : onions, tomatoes, fresh ginger, pili pili. Simmer 30 min.
  • Chili oil : oil, garlic and pili pili in a jar. Leave to infuse for 1 week.

Flavored salts

  • Fries with pili pili salt : homemade fries, pili pili fleur de sel as a finishing touch.
  • Tomato and mozzarella with pepper and berry salt : tomatoes, mozzarella, olive oil, flavored salt as a finishing touch.

Classic pairings by spice

  • Vanilla with chocolate, coffee, exotic fruits, white meats.
  • Cinnamon with apple, lamb, mulled wine, rice pudding.
  • Turmeric with lentils, fish, pepper, lemon.
  • Ginger with citrus, fish, honey, garlic.
  • Clove with beef, apple, wine, onion.
  • Voatsiperifery with aged meat, blue cheese, chocolate.
  • Combava with fish, coconut, ginger, exotic fruits.
  • Pili pili with citrus, mango, garlic, coriander.

To learn more

Each spice has its own dedicated page with more ideas: explore the wikior start with Madagascar spices.

See also: vanilla usesand our best sellers.

Products that pair well

Madagascar wild combava powder (20 g jar)
Wild Kaffir Lime Powder (20g) 5.0 (5) €9,00€5,90
Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla Extract (20ml)
Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla Extract (20ml) 5.0 (3) €8,90
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Our terroirs

Where each spice comes from

Our map holds two points. Vanilla grows in the SAVA, in the north-east. Peppers, spices and combava come from Vangaindrano, in the south-east.

Madagascar · our terroirs SAVA Vangaindrano
Bourbon vanilla pods laid on marble Bourbon vanilla
Madagascar black peppercorns spread out Peppers and berries
Stacked cinnamon sticks, rolled bark Cinnamon
Whole dried cloves Clove
Turmeric powder and pieces of rhizome Turmeric
Ginger rhizome and fresh slices Ginger
Glass jar of Désiré combava powder Combava
Dried pili-pili chillies and a dish of crushed chilli Pili-pili chilli

Prepared Bourbon pods, standard grade.

Madagascar black pepper, whole peppercorns.

Dried bark, rolled into sticks.

Whole cloves.

Turmeric powder and cut rhizome.

Ginger rhizome and slices.

Our combava powder, in a glass jar.

Dried pili-pili, whole and crushed.

01
SAVANorth-east coast
02
VangaindranoSouth-east coast
03
VangaindranoSouth-east coast
04
VangaindranoSouth-east coast
05
VangaindranoSouth-east coast
06
VangaindranoSouth-east coast
07
VangaindranoSouth-east coast
08
VangaindranoSouth-east coast

Vanilla

Sambava, Antalaha, Vohémar, Andapa. Our vines climb there, on the north-east coast, and flowering runs from September to November.

Peppers and berries

Black pepper, white pepper, pink berries. Voatsiperifery is not planted: it is gathered from the vine, in the forest.

Cinnamon

Our cinnamon trees grow in agroforestry. The bark is taken from young branches in the rainy season, when the sap rises.

Clove

The clove is a flower bud, picked before it opens. It then dries until it hardens and turns deep brown.

Turmeric

The rhizome comes out of the ground, is washed then sliced. We dry it at low temperature: that is what preserves the colour and the curcuminoids.

Ginger

Same soil as turmeric, same botanical family. We offer it as a powder and in a grinder, depending on how you cook.

Combava

A small green citrus with a bumpy skin. Everything is in the zest, which we dry before grinding it into powder.

Pili-pili chilli

Picked bright red, with no green patch. It dries in the sun on racks, then is sorted by hand, fruit by fruit.

Two terroirs, one family. No broker between the plot and your jar.

Vanille Désiré · Madagascar

Photographs from our own catalogue. The outline of the island is a simplified drawing with no cartographic value. With us, vanilla comes only from the SAVA; peppers, spices and combava come from Vangaindrano.

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