I hope you're having a nice week 😊 In the mood for dessert? If you like coconut and cinnamon, you may love this one.

This is an even more inexpensive version of my recipe for Venezuelan coconut cornmeal mush.

This version is made more easily and also faster

and happens to be the favorite of my eldest sister because of its lighter texture. I adjusted my recipe to suit her taste because she's very fond of coconut cornmeal mush,

majarete as we call it in my hometown, Cumaná-Venezuela.

It's a dessert with a texture similar to Italian polenta, but with a less fine texture.

Besides, being a dessert, it is sweet. If we made it savory and with some vegetables or even meat, and some oil, margarine or butter, or pork fat, it' be a funche.

Cornmeal-based mixes are popular in Venezuela, not only because corn is a staple, but because we really love it.

INGREDIENTS

On a less busy day and with more time and resources at my disposal,

I would've used freshly processed cornmeal and homemade cane honey; I would also have cooked it in a large pot over a wood fire.

These are the ingredients I used this time:

• 1 lt freshly made milk from 1-2 coconuts

• 1 cup granulated piloncillo

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 75 gr corn flour (I used PAN)

• 1 tablespoon aniseed

• 1 cinnamon stick

• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence

• some of the fine fiber from the coconut milk

THE PROCESS

Take a deep breath and start with the coconuts. We need fresh milk to make this traditional dessert if we want it to taste like real coconut.

Open the soft pore and let the water come out in a glass. We'll use it to make the milk.

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Then take the flesh out of the shells. I used a knife, but there are special tools for this which keep you from losing a finger 😌 Cut the flesh into thin pieces of about 4 mm. Blend the flesh with the water. Let the blender go a couple of times to get the most of the coconut flesh.

You can save a little coconut flesh to grate it on top of the finished dessert.

Different from how I make coconut milk for drinking, this time I didn't use the yogurt drip bag but a medium fine mesh strainer, so that some of the coconut fiber will pass through to the dessert mixture. This gives the sensation of a more rustic, and for many, tastier dessert. I find it less delicate, but more fun than when I use the fully strained milk and just add shredded coconut instead of the processed fiber.

Start cooking the milk on medium fire. Add the cinnamon stick, aniseed, vanilla essence, salt, and sugar. Stir constantly as it cooks to help the spices release their flavor.

First hack: granulated piloncillo

One thing that made my job easier was using this granulated piloncillo. I didn't have enough cane honey in the fridge, so I opted for this little hack and it worked just fine. I use 1 cup, but it's a matter of taste. In fact, everything is a matter of taste when it comes to traditional desserts in Venezuela, as every family has a recipe and every member of the family likes it with a twist here and there.

2nd hack: Use the blender to integrate the corn flour into the mixture and avoid lumps

If you don't have experience integrating corn flour into a hot mixture, you'll almost certainly get lots of lumps. The same may be true if the pan you're using is small and you don't have room to stir vigorously. I used a small pot, so I helped myself with the blender.

Take some of the hot mixture and mix it with cold coconut milk in the blender. The idea is that the liquid should be warm and not hot, as you may have an accident when you turn on the blender; the lid will fly off and the liquid will fall out, so be careful.

Add the desired amount of corn flour and let the blender do its job.

Then incorporate the mixture to the cooking pot and mix well.

As you mix, you will see how it thickens. In my case, it happened in about 3 minutes.

Give it a taste, see if the corn flour is cooked, take the cinnamon sticks out of the mixture and immediately, pour the mixture into your favorite mold while it's still hot. In Venezuela, we use a deep plate and then turn it over once is set. I used a round pyrex because I don't have any deep plates at the moment.

Sprinkle ground cinnamon on top.

Grate the little coconut flesh you saved when making the milk and sprinkle it on top of the mush, too. This mush will cool in no time, and the you can refrigerate it; however, some people like it hot or warm, in which case, they use a spoon to eat it. When it's set and cool, you can eat it with your fingers.

Enjoy!

As usual, I hope you found this post useful 😁

Is there a similar dessert in your area?

I'd love to know about it 💚

All text and images are my own. I have taken the pictures with my Redmi 9T cell phone. And if any GIFs here, I've used GIPHY for all them.

Thank you so much for your visit :)

Banner by @andresromero 🖤

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