Rosemarie Recipe: Mayi Moulin/Ground Corn

Responsab kwisin ofisyel Geto Byenal 2015 lan, Rosemarie, te bay nou reset sa-a pou Mayi Moulin, plat vreman kreyol ki sot l’Afrik. Se Rosemarie ki te prepare tout manje chak midi nan lakou Atis Rezistans lan.

Closely related to grits and to African cornmeal based staples like Mealie Meal, Ugali and Sadza, Mayi Moulin is basically a wetter version of polenta made by boiling milled corn in water and spices. Rose-Marie, the official lunch purveyor of the 2015 Ghetto Biennale, gave us this recipe, which we have to admit is even thinner on the specifics of its preparation (our fault) than some of the others in our culinary series.

(Note: This program is conducted enitrely in Kreyol.)

Mayi Moulin / Ground Corn

Ingredients:

Kidney Beans
Coconut Oil
Coconut Milk
Scallion
Garlic
Maggi® Seasoning Cube
Butter
Coarse Corn Meal

So, you take your cooked beans, when they are really nice and cooked and soft, I take my beans and fry them in oil with coconut milk, I crush the spices, scallion, I put that in there, I put a little Maggi, I put butter, that, you really call that cornmeal “koupe dwet” that’s how good it is, you would “cut your fingers off!” I know how to make food. I am a woman who knows how to make food well!

The corn, do you have to mill that, or do you buy already ground up?

You don’t have to grind it, you buy that already ground up, you buy it by measure.

So, about the spices…

Scallion, garlic, you cook those in coconut oil.

How does it get that orange color?

Because you fry the oil, when you fry it, it gets a bit yellow. When you fry those spices, it gives it a little yellow color.

So you have scallions in there, Maggi, garlic. Does it have onions in it?

No, onions are for sauce.

How did you learn how to make this dish?

My elders showed me how to make it, you know. When the old folks show you how to do something, you need to learn it, in case it might be useful to you tomorrow.

[While we are appreciative of the oral tradition of recipe transmission, and hope you will prepare this dish and all of the Radyo Shak recipes in that spirit, it seems only fair to note that this recipe contains no information on the cooking of its primary component, the corn polenta. This is due entirely to interviewer failure and is no reflection on Rosemarie’s culinary skills. Simply put, the idea is to create a flavor base as described above, and then to add cornmeal and water to it. Bring it to a boil, and stir, cooking the corn until porridge-like in consistency.]