Cou-Cou with Flying Fish

How to Cook Cou-Cou with Flying Fish

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1. Mix the fish with the lime juice, garlic and salt and leave for 15 minutes.

   Mark done Start 15 min timer

2. Heat the oil and cook the onion for 4 minutes. Add the tomatoes, thyme, scotch bonnet and water and simmer for 10 minutes.

   Mark done Start 4 min timer

3. Lay the fish in the gravy, cover and steam gently for 8 minutes until opaque.

   Mark done Start 8 min timer

4. Boil the okra in the 700 ml water with the salt for 10 minutes. Whisk the cornmeal with the cold water and stir into the okra, beating constantly, for 10 minutes until thick and shiny. Beat in the butter.

   Mark done Start 10 min timer

5. Shape the cou-cou into balls using a buttered bowl and serve with the fish and gravy.

   Mark done

Related guide: Prep, cook and total time.

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Things to Watch For

1. Stir the cou-cou constantly.
2. Butter the bowl for shaping.
3. Use the freshest fish.

If You're Missing Something

• Dried chilli flakes can stand in for the chilli. Heat varies a great deal between chillies and between jars, so start with a small pinch and add more to taste.
• Lemon is the everyday swap for lime in this kind of dish — the acidity plays the same role even though the flavour is not identical.
• An eighth of a teaspoon of garlic powder per clove is the stand-in usually given when you are out of fresh garlic; it will not brown the same way, and it burns easily, so add it with the liquid.

About This Recipe

No other national dish depends so heavily on a wooden stick. Cou-cou, the cornmeal and okra half of the Bajan national dish, is stirred with a special flat paddle called a cou-cou stick, which beats the mixture smooth and shapes it into a ball. A wooden spoon will do, but the movement is the same: fast, energetic and in one direction.

The okra goes into boiling water first, sliced and simmered for 10 minutes until tender. This water becomes the liquid for the cornmeal. Whisk fine cornmeal with cold water to a smooth paste, then add it to the okra water, stirring all the time. Keep stirring for 10 minutes as it thickens. Stop, and lumps form. The cou-cou is ready when it is thick, shiny, comes away from the sides and can be shaped.

The fish is flying fish, the symbol of Barbados. Outside the island, use small, delicate white fish fillets, such as sole or whiting. Season with lime, garlic, thyme and salt, and steam over the sauce, which is a tomato, onion and thyme gravy flavoured with scotch bonnet and a hint of Bajan seasoning.

Shape the cou-cou into balls with a buttered bowl, and serve with the fish and a ladle of gravy.

To Go With It

Lime wedges · Hot pepper sauce · Rum punch · Green salad

Sides from the same cuisine on this site: Caribbean Coconut Rice.

Leftovers

Best eaten straight away.

Questions People Ask

Nutrition per Serving

Per serving, calculated from the ingredient list with USDA FoodData Central figures (SR Legacy). A calculation, not a laboratory analysis: brands, cuts and how you measure change the real numbers. How the figures are worked out.

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