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Tonight’s recipe is Poisson au Mais, or fish with corn. Here is the very basic recipe as my grandmother wrote it:

• 1 couche de poisson bien epicee
• 1 couche de bechamelle
• 1 couche de mais en boite
• Recommencer l’operation jusqu’a epuissement
• En dernier lieu, 1 couche de mayonnaise
• Passer au four

• 1 layer fish, very well spiced
• 1 layer bechamel sauce
• 1 layer corn in a box
• Restart until the baking dish is full
• And finally, one layer of mayonnaise
• Put the baking dish in the oven

• The corn in a box mostly likely means a can of corn
• Use shallots, parsley, scallions and garlic to season the dish
• To replace the mayonnaise with parmesan

• 2 lbs. tilapia filets, or 6 pieces
• 1 can of corn kernels, drained
• 1 shallot, minced
• 3 large scallions, white part minced
• Dried parsley
• 3 large cloves of garlic, minced
• butter
• milk
• flour
• salt
• pepper
• lemon

1. First, I preheated the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Then I used this bechamel recipe from Mario Batali minus the nutmeg since that isn’t an ingredient used in Haitian cooking and I didn’t think it would work with this meal.
3. In part while I was making the sauce and afterward, I chopped/minced the scallions, shallot and garlic and set them aside.
4. I placed 3 filets in a baking pan, covered them with fresh-squeezed lemon, salt and pepper, and some of the shallot/garlic/scallion mix, and then with some dried parsley.
5. I spooned the bechamel sauce over the filets, completely covering them.
6. I shook out about half of the can of corn over the filets.
7. Then I started that process over with a second layer of 3 filets.
8. I powdered the finished top layer with grated parmesan and placed the baking dish in the oven for 25 minutes.