Ampliare

Ampliare

Countless dishes of jerked meat are served on Cuban homes nowadays and all of them have to do with that “Negro’s food” that saw the light of day centuries ago and that used to be imported from such faraway places as Rio de la Plata.

Jerked meat and codfish were then mixed with other items to make the diet of black slaves. The tradition has lived out and those produces now sit on our tables, accompanied by others provided by the Americas, like tomatoes, potatoes and, above all, corn or maize. Little by little, those foodstuffs set up the dietary underpinnings of the slaves’ own offspring, the same descendants that now break Olympic records.

One of the best-known dishes is the so-called funche or funshi, depending on the part of the Caribbean where it’s served. Originally, it was made by mixing mashed plantains with codfish or jerked meat, a variant that hooks it up with what Cubans call fufu and that is equally eaten in other regions of the Americas. According to Don Fernando Ortiz, the late Cuban sage, that habit also hails from Africa.

Recipe 2 cups of dried corn flour 3 cups of boiling water and a pinch of salt

Preparation Pour the corn flour little by little into a pot with boiling water and whip it till it gets thick and cooks well. The mixture must be doughy and could be mixed with small dices of meat, jerked beef, cracklings, pork meat or shellfish. Lightly fried tomatoes, onions and garlic cloves can be added.