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Tutu: a very simple Aruban polenta (called Funchi), that has been jacked up with beans, bacon and brown sugar, and then fried. Oh yes. You want this.

Aruban Tutu

Adapted from Visit Aruba. Because this recipe involves cooking beans, it can take a variable amount of time depending on the age of the beans. However, it works beautifully as a 2 day recipe, as an overnight chill allows you to get firmer slices for frying.
Course Side Dish
Cuisine Caribbean
Author TheSpicedLife

Ingredients

  • 1 cup dried beans, soaked overnight, black-eyed peas would be most traditional but I did not have any
  • 2 cups water
  • 2 cups coconut milk
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 8 slices of bacon
  • 1 cup dark brown sugar, loosely packed
  • 1 1/2 t salt
  • 1 cup fine corn-meal
  • 1-2 T unsalted butter for greasing pan

For frying:

  • 2-4 T unsalted butter
  • 2-4 T bacon grease
  • coarse sea salt for sprinkling

Instructions

  1. Place the beans into a pot and add the water and coconut milk. Bring to a boil and add the garlic. Cover and reduce the heat to maintain a gentle simmer.
  2. Generously grease a 9x5 loaf pan with butter and set aside.
  3. Cook the bacon until crispy, and then crumble and set aside. Reserve the bacon grease.
  4. When the beans are mostly tender, add the brown sugar and stir it in. Add a little more water if the beans are not covered.
  5. When the beans are completely tender, add the salt and the bacon. Gradually stir in the cornmeal and continue stirring until it thickens. It will become quite stiff and even pull away from the pan sides a bit. However, if your cornmeal is not super fine and is still crunchy, you will need to add more liquid (a few tablespoons at a time) and keep stirring. Mine took about 30-40 minutes and maybe an additional cup of water, but I was using coarse cornmeal.
  6. When it is thickened and tender (for coarse cornmeal) or creamy (for fine), take it off the heat and spread it into your greased pan. Cover it with parchment paper, place a heavy plate or pan on the parchment paper, and place in the fridge to chill and set. I chilled it for about 20 minutes, but overnight is even better.
  7. Remove the pan from the fridge and invert it onto a cutting board. Tap the bottom (which will be rightside up) to loosen and release the tutu. Slice it into 3/4-inch thick slices (I tripled the recipe and thus was using a very different pan--your slices may look different from mine.).
  8. In the meantime, heat a tablespoon of butter and a tablespoon of the reserved bacon grease in a nonstick skillet. When they are quite hot, add several slices of the tutu--as many as you can add with whatever size pan you are using without crowding the pan.
  9. Fry until deep golden brown on each side, I found it took about 3-4 minutes per side. Remove to a paper towel coated plate and immediately sprinkle with salt. Repeat until you have finished, adding more butter and bacon grease as needed (or store the leftovers to be fried the next day!).
  10. Eat while warm.