Cuscuz

Ingredients

Cake

• 500 gfine cornmeal
• 250 mlwarm water
• 1 tspsalt
• 2 tbspsugar, optional
• 1 tspaniseed or ground cinnamon, optional

To serve

• cane honey
• butter
• coffee

Equipment

• a binde, or a steamer basket lined with cloth

Directions

1. Put the cornmeal in a wide bowl and add the warm water gradually, rubbing it through your fingers as you go.
2. Work it until every grain is damp and the meal holds together when you squeeze a handful but crumbles apart again when you open your hand.
3. That texture is the whole technique and it is judged entirely by feel rather than by measurement. Too wet and it steams into a paste; too dry and it never binds.
4. Add the salt, and the sugar and spice if you are using them.
5. Rest it for 15 minutes so the water distributes evenly through the meal.
6. Rub it through your fingers again to break up any lumps that have formed, then pass it through a coarse sieve.
7. Pack it loosely into the binde or a cloth-lined steamer basket.
8. Loosely, and never pressed down. Steam has to travel up through the whole mass, and a packed cake steams wet at the base and stays raw at the top.
9. Steam over boiling water for 30 to 40 minutes, until it has set and no longer tastes raw.
10. Turn it out, cut it into wedges, and eat it warm with cane honey and butter alongside a cup of coffee.
11. It is unrelated to North African wheat couscous despite the name, and a binde is a hollowed wooden pot made for precisely this.

Technique

• Fine cornmeal rather than coarse polenta. The grain size decides whether it binds into a cake at all.
• It is a breakfast, eaten warm, and it goes dry and crumbly within a few hours.
• Cane honey, mel de cana, is sugarcane syrup rather than bee honey and it is the traditional partner.

Substitutions

• A conventional steamer with a cloth-lined basket in place of a binde.
• Golden syrup or molasses if cane honey is unavailable.

Variations

• Made with sugar and cinnamon for a sweeter cake.
• Plain and unsweetened, eaten with fish or stew.
• With grated coconut worked through the meal.

History

Cornmeal steamed in a wooden binde pot, eaten warm with cane honey or coffee; unrelated to North African wheat couscous.

Frequently asked questions

What is Cuscuz?

Cuscuz is a breakfast from Cape Verde: steamed cornmeal cake eaten warm with honey, butter or coffee. Cornmeal steamed in a wooden binde pot, eaten warm with cane honey or coffee; unrelated to North African wheat couscous.

How long does Cuscuz take to make?

Cuscuz takes 20 min of preparation and 40 min of cooking. The recipe makes 6 servings. It is rated easy to make.

What can I substitute in Cuscuz?

Yes, within limits. A conventional steamer with a cloth-lined basket in place of a binde. Golden syrup or molasses if cane honey is unavailable.

What is the most important thing to get right in Cuscuz?

That texture is the whole technique and it is judged entirely by feel rather than by measurement. Too wet and it steams into a paste; too dry and it never binds.