Ingredients
The pudding
- 200 gfine cornmeal
- 1 litrewhole milk
- 200 gsugarcane honey
- miel de caña
- or 150 g sugar
- a pinch of salt
Sometimes added
- 1cinnamon stick
- strips of orange zest
- a knob of butter
- a little vanilla
To serve
- warm, in bowls
- a little more honey
- ground cinnamon
Directions
- Use the finest grind you can find. Cornmeal tipped into hot milk lumps badly. Mix the cornmeal with cold milk first. The paste then goes into the hot milk. Put the cornmeal into a large bowl. Add about a third of the milk cold.
- Whisk it into a smooth thin paste. It must be completely smooth at this stage. Whisk it thoroughly before moving on. Pour the rest of the milk into a heavy pot. Add the pinch of salt in to it.
- Add the cinnamon stick if you are using it. Warm it gently over a medium heat. Use a heavy pot rather than a thin one. Milk and cornmeal catch on a thin base. Use a pot larger than you think you need. Never walk away from a milk pot on the heat. Bring the milk to a bare simmer. Pour the paste in very slowly. Whisk it hard as you pour it in.
- Keep whisking until it is all in. Then keep whisking as it thickens. Let it cook over a very low heat. Give it about twenty full minutes. Stir it constantly throughout. It burns very quickly if it does. Stir right into the corners of the pot.
- Use a wooden spoon once it thickens. It goes from liquid to a soft porridge. Taste a little of the pudding. It should be soft with no grittiness. Cook it longer if you notice any. Twenty minutes is usually enough for fine meal. Stir in all the sugarcane honey. Or stir in the sugar if using that. Let it cook for five more minutes. Add it once the meal is already soft.
- Taste it and adjust the sweetness. It should be clearly sweet but not cloying. Stir a knob of butter in at the end. Remove the cinnamon stick before serving. It should fall slowly from a spoon.
- Add a little warm milk if it goes too thick. Leave it slightly looser than you want it. Serving it is always done warm. Spoon it out into warm deep bowls. Dust it over with ground cinnamon. It keeps two days refrigerated.
Technique
- Mix the cornmeal with a third of the milk cold and whisk it completely smooth before it goes anywhere near the pot: cornmeal tipped into hot milk lumps badly, and those lumps never break down afterwards. Any lumps at the paste stage stay lumps in the finished pudding.
- Miel de caña is boiled sugarcane juice reduced to a thick dark syrup, not honey from bees; it tastes of molasses and caramel with a mineral bitter edge, and that edge is much of the character. Dark molasses is the nearest substitute and plain sugar makes a blander pudding.
- Undercooked cornmeal feels sandy on the tongue, which is the commonest fault here, so taste it before sweetening; and add the honey only once the meal is soft, since sugar added early catches and slows the softening.
Substitutions
- Dark molasses, or sugar with a spoon of treacle, stands in for sugarcane honey.
- Fine cornmeal is needed; coarse polenta gives a gritty result and takes far longer.
Variations
- There is a savoury mbaipy cooked with cheese and eaten with meat; he’ẽ means sweet and distinguishes this one.
- Cinnamon, orange zest, vanilla or a knob of butter go in in different households.
- It thickens considerably as it cools, so leave it looser in the pot than you want it in the bowl.
History
A Guarani-descended sweet; he’e means sweet, distinguishing it from the savoury cornmeal mbaipy eaten with meat.
Frequently asked questions
What is Mbaipy he’ẽ?
Mbaipy he’ẽ is a dessert from Paraguay: warm cornmeal pudding cooked with milk and sugarcane honey. A Guarani-descended sweet; he’e means sweet, distinguishing it from the savoury cornmeal mbaipy eaten with meat.
How long does Mbaipy he’ẽ take to make?
Mbaipy he’ẽ takes 10 minutes of preparation and 30 minutes of cooking. The recipe makes serves 6. It is rated easy to make.
What can I substitute in Mbaipy he’ẽ?
Yes, within limits. Dark molasses, or sugar with a spoon of treacle, stands in for sugarcane honey. Fine cornmeal is needed; coarse polenta gives a gritty result and takes far longer.
What is the most important thing to get right in Mbaipy he’ẽ?
Whisk it into a smooth thin paste. It must be completely smooth at this stage. Whisk it thoroughly before moving on. Pour the rest of the milk into a heavy pot. Add the pinch of salt in to it.
