Garoobey

Ingredients

The grain

• 200 grolled oats
• or 200 g pearl barley
• soaked, if using barley
• or a mixture of both
• see the note on which

The liquid

• 600 mlmilk
• or 400 ml milk and 400 ml water
• or camel milk, traditionally
• a pinch of salt

The spice

• 1 teaspoonground cumin
• or to taste
• half a teaspoon ground cardamom
• optional
• a pinch of cinnamon
• optional

To sweeten

• 3 tablespoonssugar
• or honey
• or dates, chopped
• or to taste

To finish

• a knob of butter
• or ghee
• or a little sesame oil
• extra milk, to pour

Directions

1. Toast whole cumin seeds in a dry pan. Give them a minute until they smell fragrant. Grind them in a mortar. Start with a teaspoon and taste. It should be clearly present but not dominant.
2. Put the oats in a heavy pan. Add the milk and the pinch of salt. Heat it over a medium-low heat. So keep the heat low and stir constantly.
3. Rinse the pan with cold water before adding the milk. Do not dry it. Stir them regularly throughout. Pearl barley needs soaking for a few hours.
4. Cook it in water first until nearly tender. Garoobey should be soft and pourable.
5. Keep hot milk beside the pan to loosen it. Add sugar, honey or chopped dates. Add it near the end rather than at the start.
6. Stir in the ground cumin near the end. Add the cardamom and cinnamon if using. Taste and adjust. Stir in a knob of butter or ghee. Serve it hot in bowls.
7. Pour a little extra milk over the top. That keeps the porridge and milk separate at first. Stir it constantly as it reheats. Freeze it in single portions.

Technique

• The atlas’s own description calls this an oat porridge while its tags list barley, and those do not agree. The atlas records the discrepancy rather than choosing silently: porridges of this kind are made from oats, barley, wheat and sorghum across the region depending on what is available, so the method here covers both.
• Stir constantly and keep the heat low. Milk catches and burns very easily and boils over without warning, and a caught pan makes the whole batch taste burnt beyond rescue. Scrape the base as you stir.
• Rinse the pan with cold water and do not dry it before adding the milk. That thin film reduces sticking considerably — an old trick that genuinely works.
• The pinch of salt is not a mistake. It makes both the sweetness and the grain taste more, and leaving it out gives a flat bowl. That holds in every porridge tradition.
• Make it looser than you want it. Porridge thickens considerably as it cools, so keep hot milk beside the pan.
• Add the sugar near the end. Sugar in the pan from the start makes it catch faster.
• Toast and grind whole cumin rather than using pre-ground, which loses its aroma within months. Cumin in a sweet milk porridge surprises people used to Western breakfasts and is entirely normal here — it works against the milk and the sweetness.
• Cook barley in water first until nearly tender, then add the milk to finish. Forty minutes of milk on the heat will catch.
• Camel milk is genuinely important in Somali and Afar life, slightly saltier than cow milk and behaving differently. It is hard to find outside the region and cow milk is the practical substitute.
• This is what is given to children and to anyone unwell — gentle and easy to eat, which is what soothing means here. It is also eaten at suhoor, the pre-dawn Ramadan meal, where a slow-digesting grain porridge is exactly the point.
• Cardamom in this porridge, as in the region’s coffee and tea, arrived through Indian Ocean trade. Djibouti sits at the mouth of the Red Sea facing Yemen, and Somali, Afar, Arab, Indian and French influences all meet in its food.

Substitutions

• Rolled oats replace barley and cook in about fifteen minutes rather than forty.
• Pearl barley replaces oats for a chewier, nuttier porridge; soak it first.
• Water replaces some or all of the milk for a lighter version.
• Camel milk is traditional where it can be had; cow milk is the practical substitute.
• Honey or chopped dates replace sugar.
• Sesame oil replaces butter for the finishing richness and is used in Somali cooking.

Variations

• A savoury version without sugar, finished with butter and salt, is also made.
• Soor, the maize or sorghum porridge, is the staple grain dish across the Horn of Africa.
• Boorash is the Somali name for a similar milk porridge.
• A version enriched with ghee and served for new mothers is made in several communities.
• Sorghum or wheat versions follow the same method with longer cooking.
• Malawah, the sweet pancake, is the other Djiboutian and Somali breakfast standard.

Frequently asked questions

What is Garoobey?

Garoobey is a breakfast from Djibouti: soothing oat porridge cooked with milk and cumin.

How long does Garoobey take to make?

Garoobey takes 5 minutes of preparation and 30 minutes of cooking. The recipe makes serves 4. It is rated easy to make.

What can I substitute in Garoobey?

Yes, within limits. Rolled oats replace barley and cook in about fifteen minutes rather than forty. Pearl barley replaces oats for a chewier, nuttier porridge; soak it first. Water replaces some or all of the milk for a lighter version. Camel milk is traditional where it can be had; cow milk is the practical substitute. Honey or chopped dates replace sugar. Sesame oil replaces butter for the finishing richness and is used in Somali cooking.

What is the most important thing to get right in Garoobey?

Rinse the pan with cold water before adding the milk. Do not dry it. Stir them regularly throughout. Pearl barley needs soaking for a few hours.