Caribbean: Jamaica: Jamaican Cornmeal Pudding
Ingredients for Cornmeal Pudding:
3 cups fine yellow cornmeal
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon grated nutmeg or ground nutmeg
1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
6 cups coconut milk
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
2 cups brown sugar
2 Tablespoon dark or white rum (optional)
1 cup raisins (optional)
Ingredients for Soft Top:
1 cup coconut milk
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
INSTRUCTIONS:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease a 10 inch spring form baking pan with butter. You can also use a regular 10 inch baking pan. Set aside.
In a medium pot, add the coconut milk, butter, brown sugar and vanilla extract and heat on medium heat. Mix until the sugar is dissolved and it is heated but not boiling. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool off.
Sift all the dry ingredients: flour, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon and cornmeal in a large mixing bowl. Whisk together, until combined evenly.
Add the rum to the warm liquid and stir. Pour little by little the warm liquid to the dry ingredients and mix well with a wisk.
Continue to whisk for a few minutes to make sure there are no lumps and it is smooth.
Pour the mixture into the greased spring from baking pan. If you are adding raisins, sprinkle them at this time. See above the process on how to add the raisins.
Bake for 20 minutes first. In the meanwhile, mix together the ingredients to make the soft top in a small bowl with a whisk to evenly combined.
Remove from the oven and stir the batter to evenly distribute the raisins, if some were added. Pour the soft top mixture over the batter and bake for 80 minutes. The top of the pudding will be soft, while the bottom will be firm.
Remove from the oven and let it cool for about an hour. Remove the outer rim of the spring from baking pan. Slice and enjoy.
