One of my favorite things to eat growing up was a stew my mom made called chaka mais, full of hominy and red beans, meat and good flavor. I recently tested this out and am sharing this chaka mais recipe with you in the Kreyol Kitchen.

According to my mom, chaka mais is not all over Haiti. It’s from Gonaives (where my mom is from) and surrounding areas. Often it’s cooked on Saturday, the day the home cook would go to the market and would have less time to spend in the kitchen. It’s an easy way to put inexpensive and simple ingredients together to feed plenty of family members and have them feeling full.

Ingredients (you can play around with this based on what you like more or less of):

• 1/2 cup hominy (I used canned hominy)
• 1/2 cup red beans (I used canned kidney beans)
• Meat on bone (I used ham hocks)
• Garlic, celery, leeks, salt and pepper, all to taste
• Little bit of olive oil

Directions (see note afterward before you use these directions):

1. Cook the hominy, beans and meat in one big pot together and cook long enough for the meat to get tender.
2. Stir regularly so hominy and beans don’t burn on the bottom.
3. Chop up the garlic, celery, leeks and stir them in.
4. Add salt and pepper.
5. Simmer with some olive oil.
6. It’s ready to eat once meat is tender.

Note: My mom said the chaka mais would get better with practice and she is right. The first time I made this, it was too watery. The second time, I didn’t let the meat cook look enough. I highly recommend using ham hocks for this because the flavor is so so so tasty and rich, but next time, I’ll probably simmer the hocks in the water from the cans of red beans and hominy for longer before adding the hominy and red beans and simmering all together. That way, the meat will have time to get tender long before I add in the other ingredients and then won’t run the risk of burning the hominy and red beans or making them too mushy.

Overall, chaka mais is simple, delicious, a favorite of mine, and I hope you’ll give it a try!