You know the proverb, necessity is the mother of invention, right? Well, lemme tell you, laziness can result in inventions too, but I am not going to take it that far. This is more like a shortcut that can fool you into thinking that this Metem was made the traditional or usual way. I seem to have a knack for this sort of thing. Up to last week, I was being thanked for my 10-minute microwave Cornmeal Cou-cou that makes people think that it was stirred, and cooked low and slow for 90 minutes on the stovetop. Well, today it is about the wonderful dish of Metemgee that can be ready in less than 30 minutes!
You will recall me telling you last week that I usually buy ground provisions, boil them in lightly salted water, drain, cool and refrigerate to use in a variety of ways. Something I always have in the freezer is fresh, hand-grated coconut. I use coconut in many ways, including making milk. Therefore, the key liquid ingredient in Metem is always available.
The other day I came home from work, opened the fridge and looked at all the cooked and neatly packed things. There was spinach dhal, Cook-up rice, fried karaila, fried okra/ochroe, smoked herring, and individual glass containers with eddoes, plantains, and cassava. I turned up my nose at everything and shut the refrigerator. As I write this, I realize that I was obviously not that hungry otherwise, I would not have made styles and taken out something to eat. Or we can think of it as being spoiled for choice. After pid-gee-winging for about 15 minutes, I settled on doing a fry-up of the ground provisions, as in boil ‘n fry. However, as I removed the containers from the fridge, it occurred to me that I did not want to eat something dry, I wanted something with a sauce, thus my cheat Metemgee.
Coconut was quickly defrosted, blended, strained and squeezed for its milk; eggs brought up to room temperature, and fortunately, I had a few okra left back. I quickly chopped up some onions, thyme, celery and hot peppers. Now I know that you may frown at this and that is okay (lol). I am not really a duff/dumpling person so I did not knead dough to make any. And if you say then that this is not proper or real Metemgee, remember, I did say, it was a cheat version (laugh).
To cook:
The aromatics were sauteed low and slow so as to soften and not develop colour.
Coconut milk was poured over the aromatics along with salt to taste and fresh ground black pepper; the heat raised to medium high and brought to a boil before being lowered and reduced to a simmer for 10 minutes.
The ground provisions by then had lost some of their chill and were added to the pot and the heat raised to medium high to come to a boil. Again, once the pot came to a boil, the heat was reduced to low and left to simmer so that the ground provisions could soak up some of the sauce and thicken.
About 3 minutes before the pot was done, the okra(s) were dropped whole to cook. Meanwhile the eggs were boiled.
Before shutting off the heat for the Metem, I tasted for seasoning and it was spot on so there was no need for any more salt but I love freshly ground black pepper, so I added some more.
That afternoon as I sat down to eat, I was convinced that no one would know that the Metem was not cooked from scratch, at least not from the flavour. Some aficionados would wonder how come the ground provisions were not meltingly mushy, but then again, they may just admire the cooking skill of being able to keep the ground provisions intact but still be deliciously soft (laugh).
While this is not a from-scratch cooking of Metemgee whereby the raw ingredients are boiled-cooked in the coconut milk, it is not that far off.
What I like most about this is that I can have Metemgee at any time. I don’t have to wait until the weekend to shop for the ingredients (the markets here in Barbados are weekly on the weekend).
Here is another thing to like about this, you do not have to have a variety of ground provisions to make this dish. You can make it with all breadfruit, plantains, cassava, eddoes, sweet potatoes, dasheen, tanya, or yam. Simply make it your own.
Cynthia
cynthia@tasteslikehome.org
