Fresh White Mealie Bread

I can hear many of you asking what on earth a Mealie is, or am I wrong?

I'm talking Maize here, yes, we call white Corn a Mealie. It's not as sweet as yellow Sweetcorn, nor as nutritious, as the pigment that gives sweetcorn its yellow colour, is beta carotene, and turns into vitamin A when digested.

I was curious where the word Mealie came from, as we use the word 'Mielie' in Afrikaans, and discovered that the South African English speakers actually adopted an Afrikaans word!
It often is the other way around!

Borrowed from Afrikaans mielie, from obsolete Dutch milie (“millet, maize”), from Old French mil (“millet”)
Source - Wiktionary

I learned from a young age that white mealies have to be picked when they're still young, and eaten as soon as possible. Once picked, the young sweetish and moist kernels slowly start turning into starch, so the longer you leave it, the dryer and less tasty it becomes.

That's exactly what happened to me this week, I was way too busy and forgot to cook the mealies, but I remembered the delicious steamed Mealie bread my Ouma used to make when mealies were harvested too late and were sold at bargain prices.
Back in those days, nothing went to waste.

My Ouma and later my Mom, used to keep all the flour sacks, wash them and save some for steamed Christmas puddings, Mealie Bread, while others were used for household cleaning.I promised my friend @carolynstahl a while back that I would attempt this recipe by using the mealie husks as a wrapper, making little parcels, and steaming the Mealie Bread in it.

I was quite apprehensive at first but ended up having great fun with these parcels, and then became concerned again, wondering how the bread would turn out.
I need not have worried, as it was really delicious eaten hot with vegan butter melting into the bread!

I carefully removed the husks and set the best ones aside for my parcels, some were torn into thin strands to become the 'string' to tie the parcels together.

You can see just how old and dry these mealies had become, but I grated them till I had 2 cups, as per Ouma's old recipe.
The ingredients are so simple, yet the end product is really delicious!

The Recipe

• 500ml grated fresh white Mealies
• 50ml Cake Flour
• 5ml Baking Powder
• 5ml Salt

Mix all together, spoon into a husk, cover with another husk, and tie the parcels together with the husk 'string'

I used a large deep pot, put a stainless steel stand inside, and added hot water to a level just below the stand. The water must not come into contact with the bread parcels.

I placed the lid on and steamed it for about an hour.

Parcels are unwrapped to reveal little loaves of steamed Mealie bread.

Sliced, buttered, and eaten on its own, Mealie Bread is a meal in itself, something I imagined must have happened during the Depression years when my Ouma grew up.
My Mom sometimes used to serve it as an accompaniment to a main meal, probably the only time my one brother (I had four!), would eat anything close to a vegetable!

Pure and simple, this steamed Mealie Bread is something anyone can easily whip up, place in a steamer, and just leave to steam while socializing in the Hivesphere :)

BON APPETIT EVERYONE!

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Original Content by @lizelle Copyright @lizelle – All Rights Reserved

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