Aklui

Ingredients

The grain

• 500 gmillet flour
• finely ground
• or maize flour
• or a mixture of the two
• about 200 ml water, to moisten
• a pinch of salt

For cooking

• about 1.5 litres water
• for steaming or boiling
• a little more, to adjust

To serve

• sugar, to taste
• or honey
• soured milk, or fresh milk
• or sweetened condensed milk
• a little grated nutmeg, optional
• a pinch of salt

Equipment

• a wide shallow bowl or basin
• a fine sieve or a flat basket
• a steamer, or a heavy pot
• muslin, to line the steamer

Directions

1. Put the millet flour into a wide shallow bowl or a basin. Add the pinch of salt and stir it through the dry flour. Use your fingertips to rub the flour as you sprinkle.
2. Work in small circular movements with your palms and fingers. Keep adding water extremely slowly and keep rubbing. Too much water at once gives a paste rather than granules.
3. Repeat until most of the flour has become even granules. Let them rest for ten minutes so the flour hydrates evenly. Line a steamer basket with muslin, since the granules are fine. Tip them in loosely without pressing them down at all. Steam must be able to pass right through them.
4. Steam for about fifteen minutes, then tip them back into the bowl. Sprinkle a little water over and rub out the clumps that have formed. Let them cool for a moment first, because steam scalds badly. Then steam them a second time for another fifteen minutes.
5. Bring the water to a boil and scatter the granules in gradually. Stir constantly as you add them so they do not clump together. Simmer them for about fifteen minutes until soft.
6. Take a granule and crush it between your fingers. It should be soft right through with no hard chalky centre.
7. Add hot water gradually if it has come out too thick. It keeps without refrigeration, which is why it took hold. Spread them out and let them dry fully in the air. Dried granules keep several weeks in an airtight jar.

Technique

• Add the water a tablespoon at a time and no faster. This is the step people rush and it is the one that decides the dish — too much water at once gives a paste that cooks into a solid lump rather than the separate granules that define aklui.
• The granules should hold together when squeezed and fall apart when released, about the size of coarse breadcrumbs. Sieve them and re-rub whatever is too large.
• If steaming, the second steaming is essential. Rub the granules out between the two, breaking every clump, and skipping it leaves them dense and unevenly cooked.
• Boiling is quicker and more common on a working morning; steaming gives a drier, more separate result. Both are made in Togolese households.
• Crush a granule between your fingers before serving. It should be soft right through — raw millet flour tastes chalky and unpleasant.
• Make it looser than you want it. It thickens noticeably as it stands and cools, and it sets very firm in the refrigerator.
• The porridge is deliberately plain and everything goes in at the bowl. A pinch of salt alongside the sugar sharpens the sweetness noticeably and is worth adding even to a sweet porridge.
• Traditional soured milk is raw milk left to sour, which can carry bacteria that souring does not reliably destroy. Cultured buttermilk or thin plain yoghurt gives the same tang safely. Sweetened condensed milk is very widely used across the region for the practical reason that it keeps without refrigeration.
• Millet holds on where the rains are short and unreliable, which is why it remained a staple across the Sahel and the drier belt while maize displaced it in wetter areas.
• The rubbing technique connects aklui to a wide family — thiacri and dèguè in the Sahel, attiéké in Côte d’Ivoire, and North African couscous, which is made by almost exactly the same process with semolina.

Substitutions

• Maize flour replaces millet, or a mixture of the two is used; maize gives a milder and slightly sweeter porridge.
• Fine semolina can be rubbed and steamed the same way, giving something close to a sweet couscous.
• Cultured buttermilk or thin plain yoghurt replaces traditional soured milk safely.
• Sweetened condensed milk replaces both the sugar and the milk, and is what many households use.
• Honey replaces sugar for a rounder sweetness.
• Boiling replaces the double steaming entirely and is quicker, at the cost of a looser texture.

Variations

• A savoury version, seasoned with salt and eaten with a sauce rather than milk, is made in some households.
• Thiacri and dèguè across the Sahel use steamed millet granules folded into sweetened soured milk and served cold.
• Attiéké in Côte d’Ivoire uses the same granule technique with fermented cassava rather than millet.
• A thinner version, drunk from a cup rather than eaten with a spoon, is sold by street vendors.
• Some households add grated coconut, which is more common nearer the coast.
• Related millet porridges are eaten across Ghana, Benin and Burkina Faso under their own names.

Frequently asked questions

What is Aklui?

Aklui is a breakfast from Togo: granular millet porridge taken with sugar or soured milk.

How long does Aklui take to make?

Aklui takes 30 minutes of preparation and 40 minutes of cooking. The recipe makes serves 6. It is rated medium to make.

What can I substitute in Aklui?

Yes, within limits. Maize flour replaces millet, or a mixture of the two is used; maize gives a milder and slightly sweeter porridge. Fine semolina can be rubbed and steamed the same way, giving something close to a sweet couscous. Cultured buttermilk or thin plain yoghurt replaces traditional soured milk safely. Sweetened condensed milk replaces both the sugar and the milk, and is what many households use. Honey replaces sugar for a rounder sweetness. Boiling replaces the double steaming entirely and is quicker, at the cost of a looser texture.

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

Work in small circular movements with your palms and fingers. Keep adding water extremely slowly and keep rubbing. Too much water at once gives a paste rather than granules.