Sweet Millassou - A Slice of Corn and Sugar
French Peasant Pudding. One of the oldest Recipes in the Pyrenees
May 14, 2009
Once widely made in the mountain farmhouses of South West France, Millassou is still available at some local markets during the winter months. Whilst each village has developed slight variations on the traditional recipe, the basics remain the same. Millas is a nourishing dish which consists of cornmeal being sprinkled into a soup of water, butter and milk and cooked in a deep copper pot until it begins to thicken. Then it is transferred to a hot oven and baked until set, so that it can be cut into thin slices, which are then fried. If they are to be eaten as a dessert they are sugared, if to accompany a meat stew they are salted and the name shortened to Millas. Since the introduction of maize into French farming corn-flour has now replaced the traditional ingredient of millet – but the name itself has kept the millet connotation.
The heart of Millas making is St Girons, in the Couseran valley of the Pyrénées. Here they have a society which preserves old recipes and gastronomy and they have developed their own up-dated, slightly more sophisticated, version of the dish. The cornmeal is stirred into boiling milk - apparently with the stick of a young fir tree rather than a wooden spoon, which lends it a distinctive taste. After it begins to thicken it is poured out into small palets which are first fried and then flambéed with Armagnac or apple brandy. A slightly safer version appears in the recipe below. But if you like flambéing simply withhold the Armagnac (which I have incorporated into the mix) and add to the frying pan at the end.
Recipe: Millassou
Serves: 4/6
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 1h10 minutes
Ingredients:
- 500ml milk
- 100g cornflour
- 50g plain white flour
- 4 eggs
- 100g butter
- 1 pinch of salt
- 14g vanilla sugar
- 100g caster sugar
- zest of 1 lemon
- 40ml Armagnac
Method:
- Bring the milk to the boil with the salt and sugar.
- Remove from the heat and add the flour using a wooden spoon (or fir stick if you have one to hand!) to whisk it in.
- Add the butter, then the eggs one at a time and whisk until the mixture begins to thicken.
- Lastly add the lemon zest and the Armagnac.
- Pour into a buttered oven proof dish, cook until golden in a moderate oven (Gas mark 5 / 180 degrees C) for 50 minutes.
- Allow to cool completely then slice and fry quickly over a hot heat.
Serve lukewarm in fried slices sprinkled with vanilla sugar.
