I remember the first time I had this dish and I love it right away. As a kid, I wasn’t the biggest fan of cornmeal, but I found mais a la bonne femme extremely delicious. And I would ask for it very often. Here’s the directions on how to make your own.
Let’s get started!!!
Ingredients:
For the meat sauce:
2 lbs of ground beef
24 oz of dice tomatoes
14 oz of tomato sauce
1 diced bell pepper
1 tbsp of ginger
2 heads of garlic
sea salt to taste
2-3 tsp of chili powder
1 onion
1/4 cup of thyme
1/2 cup of parsley
3 scallions
1 egg
coconut oil
For the cornmeal:
3 cups of cornmeal
2 cups of coconut milk
1 diced onion
1 diced bell pepper
1 cup of Edam cheese (frommage tete de Maure)
diced tomatoes
tomato sauce
sea salt to taste
epis
coconut oil
7-8 cups of water
First thing make the epis. “Epis” is a very important item in Haitian cuisine. It is used in most of our dishes.It’s pretty easy; put all the ingredients in a blender (garlic, scallions, thyme, 1/3 cup of parsley, chili powder, sea salt, 1/4 of a bell pepper, ginger, and 1/3 cup of coconut oil) and blend until smooth. I am only using chili powder because I didn’t have habanero pepper or scotch bonnet pepper on hand. Once the epis is done, separate it in half for the meat and the cornmeal.
Pour half of the epis on the meat, and break an egg in there and mix them in. When they are done mixing, put the meat in pot on high heat and cook it for about five minutes. After that, add in the diced onion and bell pepper and some chopped parsley. Pour in half of the diced tomatoes and the tomato sauce. Leave about 1/4 cup of the tomato sauce for the cornmeal. Let the meat cook on medium/high heat for about 30 minutes covered.
Preheat the oven at 350 degrees F.
Next step is to start the cornmeal part of the dish. In a large pan on medium/high heat, pour in some oil, and cook the diced onions for about three minutes, or until they are translucent. After that, add in the diced bell pepper and let it cook for another three minutes. Once they are done, add in the rest of epis and let it cook in the oil for about one minute. Then add the rest of the tomato sauce and the diced tomatoes, let them cook for five minutes. Next pour in the coconut milk and the about 7-8 cups of water to cook the cornmeal. Let it come to a boil.
Once the water has come to a boil, add the cornmeal, and stir it in vigorously, until the cornmeal is cook. Now that both the meat and the cornmeal are cooked, they can be layered in a baking dish.
In a large baking dish, layer the meat on top of the cornmeal and seal it away with another layer of cornmeal. Sprinkle grated cheese on top of the dish. Both layers have enough oil in them, so greasing the baking dish is not necessary. This quantity of the recipe gave me one large baking dish and one small baking dish; both full. Put it in the oven to bake for about 20 minutes. Once it is done baking, let it cool down completely before cutting into it.
Enjoy your food.
Thank you for your time
