Millet Porridge

Millet porridge is one of the oldest breakfasts on the continent. Millet is an ancient cereal grain eaten across Africa and Asia for thousands of years, and pearl millet in particular is a staple across the Sahel, where it grows in conditions that defeat most other grains. Porridges made from it appear under many names. Fura in northern Nigeria and Niger is millet worked into balls and mixed with fermented milk. Ogi and koko are made from fermented millet or maize across West Africa. Uji in East Africa is often millet based. This particular recipe is a plainer, contemporary preparation, rinsed and simmered rather than fermented, and its flavour ideas run to cinnamon apple and pumpkin spice, which places it in a Western health food register rather than a West African one. The grain itself does the work. Millet has a mild, faintly sweet and nutty flavour, cooks to a texture close to cream of wheat, and turns genuinely creamy when blended after cooking. It carries more protein and fibre than most grains and no gluten at all, which is why it has found a second audience outside the regions that have always eaten it. No country is claimed here, because the porridge as written belongs to none in particular.