Haitian Cornflour Drink, Porridge or Pudding: Akasan

Akasan is a thickened drink made with cornflour, which is NOT to be confused with cornstarch, which is also called cornflour in some cultures, nor is it quite the same as the cornmeal typically used in the U.S. to make cornbread or mush or to make polenta in Italian cuisine. If you don't have cornflour, it should be easily found in supermarkets in the flour and meal section, or it might be in the Latino section, and you won't need to take out a loan to buy it, as it is reasonably priced. It also comes in various size bags, like 4 1/2 pounds down to 1 1/2 pounds, and it is sold under at least a couple of  brand names. It will naturally also be easily found in Latino grocery stores. Rather than a drink, some call Akasan a porridge, and I've also seen it referred to as a pudding (keep reading). Akasan is a common drink in Haiti, while often served somewhat chilled, it can also be enjoyed warm. Just to be clear too, you use canned EVAPORATED milk, NOT canned sweetened condensed milk. This was the first time I ever made this, and it is easy to make, although you need to whisk it a lot to prevent lumps. One of the reasons human beings put various types of flour or meal into liquids is to help thicken them. Understand, because this is made with cornflour, if you give it more than a little chill, it will firm up a good deal, and you will find out why those who call it a pudding use that term. In that case, you can eat it with a spoon, which is just fine, or you can try adding some milk to thin it out, but it will likely be lumpy. After I looked at many recipes for akasan, I decided to use the smallest amount of cornflour, which will also help to keep it from getting too thick. You can, of course, use a little more cornflour (like 2/3 cup, instead of 1/2 cup) and then eat the thickened dish as a porridge while it is still warm. I suggest making just enough to enjoy relatively fast. As I mentioned, this was the first time I made this, so I'm learning too. 

 

When the drink was invented is unknown, and where its name comes from is also something of a mystery, although the "san" part is thought to be from the French-based creole language of Haiti and means "one hundred." Haitian creole is heavily based upon French, but with many influences from African languages, native Amerindian dialects, Spanish and Portuguese, and it seems to have developed into its modern recognizable form around 1700.

 

 

Ingredients (3 or 4 large, or 4 to 6 smaller servings):

 

1/2 cup cornflour (the flour type, not the larger grain type)

2 1/2 cups water

3 star anise

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 to 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (depending upon your preference for cinnamon)

1 can evaporated milk (12 ounces)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

4 to 6 tablespoons sugar, depending upon desired sweetness 

Use a heavy bottom pan, and bring 1 1/2 cups of the water, star anise, cinnamon, and salt to a boil. Meanwhile, in a bowl, mix the remaining 1 cup water with the cornflour to make a kind of batter. Slowly begin adding the cornflour mixture to the boiling water, whisking constantly to prevent lumps or to break up any lumps that form. Reduce the heat to low or very low and continue whisking as the mixture cooks for 4 to 5 minutes. Do not let the cornflour stick. If it begins to stick, remove it from the heat immediately and keep stirring, then put it back on the heat (adjust the heat to the lowest setting). Take out the 3 star anise and add the evaporated milk, vanilla extract and sugar, stirring well to mix everything together and then remove from the heat. You can serve this right away while warm, or you can put it into the refrigerator for an hour or so to just chill it a bit before serving (see above about chilling).

 

 

 

WORD HISTORY:

Cent-This word is closely related to "centurion" and to "percent," both borrowed by English from Latin (see further below about "percent"), and to "century," a Latin word, "probably" borrowed from that language, but with French influence or reinforcement, although perhaps the other way around, and to "decade," a word borrowed from French, which had it from Latin, which had it from Greek, and it is distantly related to both "hundred" and to "ten," words from the Germanic roots of English. It goes back to Indo European "dekm," which meant "ten," and its altered form "kmtom," which meant "hundred." This gave Latin "centum," with the same meaning, and this was rendered in Latin-based Old French as "cent." English seems to have first used "cent" in the mid 1500s^ from the expression "per centum" ("by the hundred"), but with the form "cent," presumably from the French form, which gave English "per cent," then combined into "percent," which led the meaning to "a one hundredth part of something." The 1780s saw "cent" by itself proposed for a monetary unit in the United States to represent "one hundredth of a dollar."

 

^ I say "seems" because many sources on "cent" have different times the word entered English, with some mentioning the 1300s (with the meaning "hundred," but it certainly had little, if any, chance of replacing the native English word "hundred") and others later, including the example I used above. Some say the earlier form was from Latin, others say it was from French, and with a number of Latin-based words borrowed into English, at times it is tough to tell the exact source, as the French forms are similar or even the same. I'm getting along in years, and I don't know how much time I still have, but I'm not going to spend it in consternation over whether English borrowed "cent" in the 1300s, the 1400s or the 1500s. I chose the 1500 example, because that is apparently when the word took on the meaning still with us today.