Romazava (Meat Stew with Greens)

Malagasy Romazava is the national dish of Madagascar. It is a meat stew filled with a combination of green leafy vegetables. It is served over rice which is a staple at every meal. When invited to eat in Madagascar they say “Manasa Hihinam-bary!” which literally means “let’s eat rice.” The dishes that are served with rice are considered to be the side dishes and called laoka. This dish is hearty made with beef, chicken and pork. In Madagascar the beef would be zebu. In trying to make this dish authentic it was a bit of a challenge. The greens used in this dish are mustard greenswhich was not a problem. A green called anamamy is very similar to spinach so a reasonably easy substitute. However I could not find paracress. This is sometimes called the toothache plant because of its numbing affect like a local anesthetic. It has a peppery taste so we used arugula as the substitute but felt certain we didn’t get the full enjoyment of the dish without the paracress. It was a delightful stew nonetheless and the condiment sakay is what makes the dish come alive. Enjoy!