Mayi Moulen ak Aransò | Creamed Cornmeal with Smoked Herring
September 22, 2017
Mayi Moulen ak aransò is a great dish, ask me that 4 years ago, I wouldn’t agree. The smell of Aransò (smoked herring) was so gross to me but ohh how things have changed. What once made me gag is now a pleasant and enticing scent. I used to say Yuck and now I say Yum. I tasted the smoked herring patties from a Haitian Bakery called La Baguette and that made me fall deeper in love with herring, how could something taste so good??? Anyway now that I’ve experimented with it I want to share my recipe for Mayi Moulen ak Aransò (Cornmeal/Polenta with Smoked Herring). Trust me, if you give it a try you too will like it.
Desalting the smoked herring is super easy, boil it in some water for about 5-6 minutes, discard the water. Smoked herring is not as salty as salted codfish so you don’t really need to repeat that step more than once. I like to take 90% of the bones out just because I’m anal about stuff like that. People say that if you leave them, the bones will melt down; I can’t say if that is a fact or not but what I can say is that I’ve never gotten stabbed in the mouth by the 10% of bones that I do leave in there.
After deboning I use my cutting board and a large sharp knife to finely chop it down. If you’re old school and really want to channel your Haitian roots go ahead and use a Pilon (mortar and pestle) the original food processor (LOL).
The type of cornmeal I used was fine, my mom likes to use a coarser one but I’m not a big fan of it so I use the one that comes out super smooth and creamy. When I say fine I don’t mean the one that resembles a powder, it’s still grainy but small grains.
As I said above, try this you will like it!!!
Watch me make Mayi Moulen ak Aransò here:
Ingredients
Adjust Servings
| 1 ½ cup fine cornmeal, rinsed | |
| 3 pieces of smoked herring, desalted , deboned and finely chopped | |
| ⅛ cup oil | |
| ⅛ cup epis | |
| ⅓ cup diced onions | |
| 1 roma tomato, diced | |
| 1 tablespoon tomato paste | |
| 1 sprig of thyme | |
| ⅛ tsp clove powder | |
| ½ teaspoon salt | |
| ¼ teaspoon black pepper | |
| 1 tablespoon chicken base or half a rectangular bouillon cube | |
| ½ - 1 teaspoon hot pepper sauce or pikliz juice | |
| 4 ⅓ cups water | |
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