← Nouns Cooking · Caribbean

Ingredients

• 600 g flying fish fillets (or thin sea bream or tilapia fillets)
• 1 Lime, juiced
• 3 Spring onion, finely chopped
• 4 cloves Garlic, minced
• 4 sprigs Thyme, leaves picked
• 2 tbsp Parsley, chopped
• ½ Scotch bonnet chilli, minced
• 1½ tsp Salt, divided
• 1 tbsp Vegetable oil
• 1 Onion, sliced, divided
• 3 Tomato, chopped
• 1 Bell pepper, sliced
• 1 tbsp Tomato purée (paste)
• 1 l Water, divided
• 250 g fine yellow cornmeal
• 200 g Okra, tops trimmed, sliced into thin rings
• 40 g Butter

Method

1. Rinse the fish with the lime juice and water and pat dry. Mash the spring onion, garlic, thyme, parsley, scotch bonnet and ½ tsp salt into a rough paste, rub it over the fillets, roll them up and leave for 30 min.
2. Meanwhile, stir the cornmeal into 400 ml of cold water and leave it to soak. Bring the remaining 600 ml water to a boil with ½ tsp salt and half the onion, add the okra and boil for 5–8 min until tender. Strain, keeping the slimy okra water.
3. Make the sauce: heat the oil in a wide pan over medium heat and fry the rest of the onion and the pepper for 4 min. Add the tomatoes, tomato paste, 150 ml water and the remaining salt and simmer for 5 min.
4. Lay the rolled fish in the sauce, cover and steam over low heat for 8–10 min, until the flesh is opaque and flakes easily.
5. For the cou-cou, pour about a third of the okra water back into a heavy pot, add the okra and bring to a simmer. Stir in the soaked cornmeal, then keep stirring hard with a wooden spoon over medium-low heat.
6. Keep adding okra water a ladle at a time and stirring for 15–20 min, until the cou-cou is thick, smooth and pulls away from the sides of the pot. Beat in the butter.
7. Shape the cou-cou in a buttered bowl, turn it out onto a plate and spoon the fish and sauce around it.

Tips

• Flying fish is sold frozen in Caribbean shops; any thin, mild white fillet works.
• Lumps form if you stop stirring; a sturdy whisk at the start helps, then switch to a flat wooden spoon (a Bajan "cou-cou stick").
• Wear gloves to cut or blend scotch bonnets, keep your hands away from your eyes and wash the board, knife and blender well afterwards.

Sources

Written in our own words after cross-checking these recipes:

Taste the Islands Jamaicans.com