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.       

Haitian Chicken in Sauce: Poul an Sòs

Haiti is a country in the Caribbean that shares the island of Hispaniola with the Domincan Republic, a Spanish speaking nation on the eastern part of Hispaniola. As you can guess, Haiti is on the western part of the island, and French is the language of government and most commerce, while Haitian Creole is the every day language of most Haitians. This creole is overwhelmingly derived from French, but with bits and pieces of native Indian dialects, Spanish, Portuguese and African dialects. The population is of 90% to 95% black African descent. The history of Haiti is very complicated, and far beyond the scope of this article, but the Spanish were heavily involved in the overall island of Hispaniola from the time of Columbus until the early decades of the 1600s, when the French got involved in the western part of the island, which culminated in the late 1600s with an agreement between France and Spain on an official division of Hispaniola. French-owned tobacco, sugar and coffee plantations arose, worked by hundreds of thousands of African slaves. The 1790s saw the outbreak of a revolution in Haiti against French rule (in France itself, the French Revolution was ongoing during the early period of the Haitian revolt). The French abolished slavery in France and French territories. Spanish involvement on the island continued, and even the British got involved. After revolution, civil war and large numbers of French troops sent by France, eventually, Napoleon Bonaparte withdrew his troops, leaving Haiti to itself, but in an unstable governing situation. The 1800s saw much more conflict with war, assassination, a division of Haiti and conflict with the neighboring Domincan Republic. In the 1900s, the instability in Haiti saw the United States send troops to occupy the country for a number of years. After that, with governments coming and going, François Duvalier, better known as "Papa Doc," was elected in the mid 1950s and he became a ruthless dictator until his death in the early 1970s; whereupon, his son Jean-Claude, known as "Baby Doc," took over until large public demonstrations brought him to flee to France in the mid 1980s. The struggle to form stable governments in Haiti has continued. It is a very poor nation and in 2010 a major earthquake struck killing more than 200,000 people.       

Haitians have their own various ways of preparing this dish. You can use skin on or skinless chicken pieces, but I often use boneless and skinless chicken, except I add one or two skin on whole wings. One chili pepper will add "kick" to the dish, but if you're a lover of heat, use two chilies. If you aren't especially fond of heat, keeping the chili pepper whole will generally allow you to remove the chili pepper easily. Serve with rice, and Haitians often use fried plantains (called "ban(n)ann peze" in Haitian Creole) as a side dish.  

Ingredients (about 4 servings):

3 pounds chicken, mix pieces

1 large (baseball size) onion, cut into quarters, then sliced

2 large garlic cloves, minced

1/2 medium bell pepper, seeded and sliced

1/2 medium green bell pepper, seeded and sliced

1 habanero or scotch bonnet chili pepper, washed, but left whole

2 tablespoons tomato paste 

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups water (divided use)

1/4 cup oil

Add the chicken pieces to a pan. Add the minced garlic, thyme, black pepper and salt, then add 1 cup water, cover and cook for 20 minutes; remove the chicken to a plate with a slotted spoon to drain the liquid (reserve the liquid in the pan and add any liquid from the plate used to drain the chicken). Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat, then carefully add the chicken pieces to the skillet (it will sputter and spatter, so a splatter screen is a handy utensil). Fry the chicken, turning it often, until it is lightly browned (do not fry the chicken too long, especially if you use skinless chicken, as it will get dried and tough on the outside). To the original pan with the reserved broth, add the sliced onion, green and red bell pepper, scotch bonnet/habanero chili pepper, tomato paste and ground cloves; mix well to break down the tomato paste and cook over medium heat for 8 to 10 minutes. Add the chicken to the pan along with 1/2 cup water; cover and cook for 8 to 10 minutes, periodically spooning some of the sauce over exposed chicken pieces. Taste the sauce to check seasonings and adjust, if needed. Serve with rice. 

 

 Poul an Sòs with rice and a couple of fried plantains ...

 

WORD HISTORY:

Discern-This word is related to a number of words, including: "certain" and "concern," Latin-derived words borrowed by English via French, and to "secret," a Latin word borrowed by English directly from Latin, and it is distantly related to "riddle," now more common in the verb form "to fill with holes," but the corresponding noun form is now archaic, but it meant "sieve," and these are from the Germanic roots of English (it is not related to "riddle," meaning "a word game or puzzle). "Discern" goes back to Indo European "krei," which had the notion of "separating out, distinguishing between," which gave its Latin offspring "cernere," meaning, "to separate, to distinguish, to sift." Latin had the prefix "dis," with several meanings, including "asunder, apart, away from," which went back to Indo European "dwis," which had the notion, "in two;" thus, "double, twice, again." ("Dwis" may have had a variant form "dis," which may well have spawned the Latin form. Latin "dis-" and English "twi-," a prefix from the Germanic roots of English, are distantly related through Indo European.) The two Latin parts gave Latin "discernere," meaning, "to set apart, to divide, to distinguish (between), to determine (that is, "separate one thought from others, so as to make it decisive, to decide upon"). This passed to Latin-based Old French as "discerner," essentially with the same meanings, and English borrowed the word (likely with Latin reinforcement) in the second half of the 1300s as "discernen," meaning, "distinguish between two or more objects, see things clearly (thus also, 'see rationally and understand')." As English began to conjugate verbs differently, "discernen" became just "discern."