Posho

Ingredients

Posho

• 500 gfine white maize flour
• 1.2 litreswater
• a pinch of salt, optional

Equipment

• a heavy pot
• a strong flat wooden spoon or mwiko

To serve

• beans
• groundnut sauce
• greens
• meat or fish stew

Directions

1. Use fine white maize flour, not coarse and not yellow.
2. Bring most of the water to a rolling boil in a heavy pot. Now slake about a quarter of the flour in the remaining cold water and whisk it smooth.
3. Stir the slaked mixture into the boiling water and let it cook 3 minutes, whisking.
4. Add it in stages rather than all at once, and stir continuously as it goes in. Turning and pressing is what cooks the flour evenly and gives the smooth dense texture, and simply stirring leaves it grainy.
5. Keep the heat low and keep working it for 10 to 15 minutes. Cook it properly and for long enough.
6. Add a splash of hot water if it becomes impossibly stiff before it is cooked. It is ready when it comes away from the sides of the pot cleanly in a single mass and no longer tastes of raw flour.
7. Serve it hot, in one shared mound or as individual domes, alongside beans, groundnut sauce, greens or a stew. It is deliberately plain and it is not seasoned, because everything served with it is.

Technique

• It hardens as it cools and is best eaten hot.
• Leftovers are sliced and fried the next day.
• Millet or a maize and millet mix, kalo, is the darker Ugandan alternative.

Substitutions

• Any fine white maize meal, sold as ugali flour or maize meal.
• Fine polenta at a pinch, which behaves similarly.

Variations

• Kalo, made with millet flour, which is darker and stronger.
• Mixed maize and cassava flour, which is common.
• Made softer, as a breakfast porridge.

History

Maize meal named from Swahili posho, the ration issued to colonial-era labourers and later to schools, prisons and the army.

Frequently asked questions

What is Posho?

Posho is a main from Uganda: stiff white maize porridge accompanying beans and stews. Maize meal named from Swahili posho, the ration issued to colonial-era labourers and later to schools, prisons and the army.

How long does Posho take to make?

Posho takes 5 min of preparation and 25 min of cooking. The recipe makes 6 servings. It is rated medium to make.

What can I substitute in Posho?

Yes, within limits. Any fine white maize meal, sold as ugali flour or maize meal. Fine polenta at a pinch, which behaves similarly.

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

Add it in stages rather than all at once, and stir continuously as it goes in. Turning and pressing is what cooks the flour evenly and gives the smooth dense texture, and simply stirring leaves it grainy.