🇧🇫 Burkinabe Cuisine

To

Millet Porridge with Sauce

Prep Time 30 min
Servings 4
Difficulty Easy
Calories 326 kcal

Thick millet porridge formed into a mound and served with a rich okra or baobab leaf sauce. The daily staple of rural Burkina Faso.

Ingredients

  • 300g millet flour (or sorghum flour)
  • 1 litre water, divided
  • Pinch of salt
  • For okra sauce: 200g fresh okra, sliced, 100g dried fish, 1 onion diced, 2 tbsp dawadawa (locust bean paste), 2 tomatoes pureed, 2 tbsp oil, salt to taste

Instructions

  1. 1 Pour about one third of the millet flour into a bowl and add two hundred and fifty millilitres of cold water. Stir until you form a smooth, thin slurry with no lumps, resembling a thin pancake batter.
  2. 2 Bring the remaining seven hundred and fifty millilitres of water to a rolling boil in a large, heavy pot over high heat. Slowly pour the flour slurry into the boiling water while stirring constantly with a strong wooden spoon.
  3. 3 Reduce the heat to medium-low and continue stirring the mixture as it thickens. Gradually sprinkle in the remaining dry millet flour, a few tablespoons at a time, stirring vigorously after each addition to prevent lumps.
  4. 4 Continue cooking and stirring for fifteen to twenty minutes. The to is ready when it becomes very thick and stiff, pulling cleanly away from the sides of the pot and forming a cohesive mass around the spoon.
  5. 5 For the sauce, heat oil in a separate pot, saute the diced onion until soft, then add the pureed tomatoes and cook for five minutes. Add the sliced okra, dried fish, dawadawa, and salt, then simmer for fifteen minutes until thick.
  6. 6 Wet your hands with cold water and shape the to into smooth, rounded mounds on individual plates or a shared platter. Serve immediately with the okra sauce ladled alongside for dipping and scooping.

Did You Know?

To is eaten at nearly every meal in rural Burkina Faso and the quality of its smoothness reflects the cook's skill.

From The Culinary Codex — http://theculinarycodex.com/dish/burkinabe/to-burkina/