Bushera

Ingredients

Grain

• 300 gmillet flour, or sorghum flour, or a mixture
• 2 litreswater

Malted flour

• 50 ggerminated and dried millet, ground, obumera

To sweeten

• sugar or honey, to taste

To serve

• fresh and sweet, or soured for a day or more

Directions

1. Soak whole millet or sorghum grains overnight, then drain them and keep them damp and warm for two or three days until they sprout. Rinse them once a day while they germinate, which stops them going mouldy. When small shoots appear, dry them thoroughly in the sun or a low oven, then grind them.
2. Whisk the plain millet flour into cold water until completely smooth. Never add dry flour to hot water, which forms lumps that will not disperse.
3. Bring it slowly to a boil, stirring constantly, and cook it for fifteen to twenty minutes. Cook it thoroughly, since undercooked millet tastes raw and chalky and no fermentation will fix that.
4. Let the cooked porridge cool to lukewarm before the malted flour goes in. Adding it to hot porridge kills them entirely, and the drink will neither sweeten nor ferment properly. Stir the malted flour into the cooled porridge. Within an hour or two the mixture noticeably thins and sweetens as the enzymes work.
5. Strain it if you want it smooth, sweeten to taste, and drink it the same day. Fresh bushera is sweet, thick and non-alcoholic, and it is what is given to children. Cover the mixture loosely and leave it at room temperature for one to three days. Now being straightforward about that.
6. Discard it if it smells putrid, if it develops coloured mould, or if it tastes unpleasant rather than sour. Do not seal it in an airtight container, since fermentation produces gas and pressure builds.
7. Stir the mixture once every day. Bushera is thick, closer to a thin porridge than to a juice, and it is drunk from a cup or a gourd. Serve it at room temperature or cold, stirred well since it settles. It is drunk at any hour and it is offered to visitors. Keep it refrigerated if you want to stop the fermentation where it is.

Technique

• Malted grain is used, which is the same principle as malting barley for beer.
• The porridge must be cooled before the malt goes in, or the enzymes die.
• Left several days it becomes genuinely, if weakly, alcoholic.

Substitutions

• Shop-bought malted millet flour, sold as obumera or kimea.
• Sorghum flour in place of millet, or a mixture.

Variations

• Drunk fresh and sweet, which is what children have.
• Soured for three days, as a mild alcoholic drink.
• Made with a mixture of millet and sorghum.

History

Sorghum or millet flour drink from the southwest, drunk fresh and sweet or left to sour for a day into a mildly alcoholic brew.

Frequently asked questions

What is Bushera?

Bushera is a drink from Uganda: lightly sour fermented millet and sorghum drink. Sorghum or millet flour drink from the southwest, drunk fresh and sweet or left to sour for a day into a mildly alcoholic brew.

How long does Bushera take to make?

Bushera takes 20 min plus 1 to 3 days of preparation and 20 min of cooking. The recipe makes 2 litres. It is rated medium to make.

What can I substitute in Bushera?

Yes, within limits. Shop-bought malted millet flour, sold as obumera or kimea. Sorghum flour in place of millet, or a mixture.

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

Whisk the plain millet flour into cold water until completely smooth. Never add dry flour to hot water, which forms lumps that will not disperse.