Coo Coo Caribbean Polenta Food

COU COU (CARIBBEAN POLENTA)

Steps:

• Clean and wash okra. Dice all but 6. Add 3 cups of water to a large saucepan. Add salt. Add diced and whole okra. Bring okra to boil for 5 minutes. Remove pan from heat. Save whole okra aside for garnish.
• Measure 2 cups of liquid from the cooked okra to use for cooking your cou-cou.
• Mix cornmeal in a large bowl with enough cold water to moisten and blend it together. Stir the cornmeal slowly into the reserved liquid and okra. Use a wooden spoon to mix together.
• Return pot to stove over medium heat, and continue stirring okra and cornmeal. Cook and stir about 15-20 minutes. Insert wooden spoon into center of the cou-cou If spoon stands up in the pot and is easily removed from cornmeal, your cou-cou is done.
• Cou-cou should be firm when it's done. If the cou-cou is oose and creamy looking, you have used too much water. If too much water is used, let cou-cou stand uncovered over low heat to "dry out."
• When cou-cou is done, turn the entire mixture into a buttered serving bowl and garnish with whole okra.

COU-COU

Steps:

• Put water to boil in a medium-size pot. Thinly slice okra and add to boiling water. Cook for 10 to 12 minutes, until soft. Lower the heat.
• Meanwhile, combine corn meal with cold water and mix well.
• Add corn mixture to the okra. Add salt.
• Mix well and cook on low, stirring constantly with a flat wooden spoon or "cou-cou stick".
• When mixture breaks away cleanly from the side of the saucepan, the cou-cou is ready.
• Butter a bowl, turn the mixture out neatly onto it, shaking it so that it takes on the shape of the bowl.
• Turn it out on to a serving dish, make an indentation in the top and place a knob of butter in it.
• What makes it unique and distinguishes it from its now more fashionable cousin the Italian polenta, is the addition of okra. In some islands, cou-cou is spiced up by peppers and yellow-butter.
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