One problem with trying to zoom through the remaining countries on our list as quickly as possible is that we’re having to buy more meat than we normally would. Fortunately most of the recipes have used cheaper cuts, but it’s still working out on the expensive side. The national dish of Benin would have saved us from that: kuli-kuli consists of ground peanuts which are made into biscuits that are deep-fried in their own oils. Much as this sounded intriguing and probably delicious, however, it also sounded like it was going to need more time and effort than we had to spare, so we might have to experiment with it another time.
Instead, on 196 Flavors we came across massa, a Beninese pancake made with fermented millet flour. We’ve never used millet flour before, we like a pancake and we had a bank holiday coming up which screamed for an interesting breakfast (although technically massa are usually served as a dessert). We got some millet flour from our handy African supermarket and we were all set.
Massa
Ingredients
450g millet flour
1/4 cup rice
1 ripe banana, mashed
1 1/2 cups sugar
Cooking oil
Water
Method
1. Put the millet flour in a bowl and add enough water to form a ball of dough, being careful not to add too much and make a liquid.
2. Cover the bowl with clingfilm and let it sit for 8 hours or overnight.
3. The next day, gradually add 3/4 – 1 cup of water to the dough until it is a little thicker than pancake batter.
4. Mix the batter well with a stand mixer or food processor so that it increases in volume, then let it stand for 15 minutes.
5. Meanwhile, cook the rice with 1/2 cup water (we ended up needing a whole cup for this) over medium heat for 15 minutes and then mash it up to form a porridge.
6. Add the rice to the dough and mix well in a food processor.
7. Add the banana and sugar and continue mixing.
8. Add about 3/4 cup of water and mix to obtain a fairly liquid mixture.
9. Oil a non-stick pan and cook ladles of dough for 2 minutes on each side, in the same way as pancakes.
Serves 4-6
Apparently millet dough looks like clay; honestly, it tastes a bit like it too.
Riceberg, haha.
The good things about this dish:
– Millet has a huge amount of health benefits: it’s rich in vitamin A, vitamin B, minerals and amino acids; it contains silicic acid; it’s easy to digest; it can help to fight anaemia, fatigue, low morale and stomach acid.
– The combination of millet, rice and banana makes this a very filling breakfast, more so than normal pancakes.
– Unlike normal pancakes, the batter that spilt on the bench didn’t set like concrete and was easy to clean up.
– Unlike normal pancakes, the cold leftovers actually weren’t too bad (if anything they might have even been better than when they were hot)
The bad things about this dish:
– If you have to add a cup and a half of sugar to something to make it palatable, maybe that’s a clue you shouldn’t be eating it in the first place. If we’re going to overdose on sugar, we’d rather it was in something properly indulgent like a cake.
– The overnight ferment of the millet flour made the whole downstairs of our house smell like vomit.
– The amount of effort, time and dishes was in no way proportionate to the finished product.
– The massa were not at all easy to flip over and a lot of them ended up as a scrunched up version of a pancake, not the nice neat stack we were aiming for.
– It just wasn’t very nice.
The title of this post comes from what Ash said before he’d even finished cooking: ‘This is one to condemn to the archive, I think.’ He was frustrated with the cooking process and the fact that despite all the faffing around, they still weren’t really working. Then we tasted them and realised that despite all the faffing around, they still weren’t really enjoyable. Two things we did find were that a) adding Greek yoghurt and honey (yes, more sugar) made them a lot nicer, not in terms of masking their flavour but rather complementing it, and b) the more we kept nibbling on them, the more we got used to it (although that’s really more Miranda’s opinion; Ash might dispute that).
As for the children: notoriously fussy Preschooler Mash gobbled up three of them, which, to be fair, is usually what happens when we make something and decide we don’t want to ever make it again. Baby Mash had a few nibbles, looked a bit unsure and then fouled himself so dramatically that we had to hose him down in the shower afterwards. Make of that what you will.
Good Food on Bad Plates 