Mealie Bread – My nani’s recipe

My Nanima was the best cook in the world! No…not yours! Mine! Mine, mine, mine!
Ok fine…all our Nanimas were the best cooks (but mine was the awesomest…I think we can all say we feel the same)
but above all else…her mealie bread…was addictive!
She used to steam tins of these in big pots on the stove.
So in our home…it became pure habit that we tend to collect empty food cans…after we open a can of beans or corn or whatever…if it has potential for mealie bread…we SAVE it! How strange are we?
I do it because my mum did it, she did it because Nanima did it…and it probably went on like that for a while back. And the ONLY two reasons for this are:
1. So that we can get perfect round slices of mealie bread
2. So it can steam well in a pot filled with water
*side note* all hail new tinned can innovation however, please steer clear of the pull tab cans as the inner lip is a moerse problem when trying to get the freshly steamed mealie bread out {you have been warned}
This recipe uses 12 white mealies (yellow sweet corn will not yield the amazingly delicious outcome of this recipe)
Gather those tins, wash them well and keep aside.
Recipe:
12 white mealies, cut off the cob
2 cups mealie meal
3 tsp baking powder
3 extra large eggs
6-10 green chillies
1 tblsp sugar
Salt to taste
1 curry spoon ghee
1/4 pound (125g) softened butter
2 tblsp whole/crushed jeera
Liquidize the above in small batches and pour into a dish. Give one final mix and taste for salt & chilli. I needed a little extra.
Put two pots onto the stove and fill with a little water. Turn up the heat. Also put the kettle on to boil.
Spray each tin well with Spray n Cook (must do! do not skip this step else you will not be able to remove your mealie bread from the tins…as much as we love the idea of digging into the tin and eating it…it’s only fun for the first tin. So a reminder…Spray n Cook the bugger well!), then fill just over halfway with the mealie mixture.
Cover with a piece of foil so that it is well sealed. Set into the pot, keep doing this until you use up all the mixture. Once one pot is filled with tins, fill more hot water until it comes up to just over halfway up the sides of the tins.
Pop on the lid and let the mealie bread steam. Check every 20mins or so.
I filled two pots full…woohoooo mealie bread galore!!
You will know it’s done when you pull one out and give it a taste and the corn is cooked…yes it can take almost an hour even! Keep refilling the water with more boiling water if it gets too low.
Once done, remove from the tins (save them again or toss them and start the saving process all over again)
Let it cool completely, that’s after you eat the contents of one entire tin of course…lol
Once completely cooled it can be cut and layered with separating sheets into a Tupperware and placed straight into the freezer. I prefer to cool it overnight and cut the next evening, for some reason this creates less mealie crumb wastage. (which we used to fry up and eat anyway)
To serve, dip into beaten egg and fry in shallow oil.
Enjoy!
Isn’t my Nani the bestest??!! xoxo
~Fehmz~