Tô

Ingredients

Tô

• 600 gfine millet or white sorghum flour
• 2.5 litreswater
• 1 tspsalt
• 2 tbsptamarind pulp soaked in 100 ml hot water and strained, or 2 tbsp soured millet water saved from the day before

Okra and baobab-leaf sauce

• 250 gfresh okra, topped and sliced into thin rings, or 60 g dried okra powder
• 3 tbspbaobab leaf powder (lalo)
• 3 tbspshea butter or groundnut oil
• 1large onion (180 g), finely chopped
• 3garlic cloves, crushed
• 3tomatoes (300 g), grated
• 2 tbsptomato puree
• 1walnut-sized ball of soumbala (25 g), crushed
• 1vegetable stock cube, crumbled
• 2hot green chillies, chopped
• 1.2 litreswater
• 1.5 tspsalt

Directions

1. Start the sauce. Heat the shea butter in a wide pot until it stops foaming, add the onion and cook 6–8 minutes until deep golden, then add the garlic, chillies and tomato puree and fry 4 minutes until the puree darkens.
2. Add the grated tomato, the crushed soumbala and the crumbled cube, and cook 10 minutes to a thick red base. Pour in the water and simmer 15 minutes.
3. Stir in the sliced okra and the baobab leaf powder. Simmer 10–12 minutes; the sauce should turn glossy, dark green-brown and rope slightly off the spoon. That slipperiness is the point of the dish, so do not boil it hard or the strands break down. Season with salt and keep hot.
4. For the tô, bring 2 litres of the water to the boil with the salt in a heavy pot.
5. Whisk 150 g of the flour into the remaining 500 ml cold water with the tamarind water to a lump-free slurry, then pour it into the boiling water, whisking. Cook 5 minutes; it thickens to a thin gruel and loses its raw smell. This starter is what stops the finished paste being lumpy.
6. Now rain in the rest of the flour a handful at a time, working it against the side of the pot with a strong wooden spatula. Keep the heat moderate and never stop stirring.
7. When the mass is too stiff to whisk, beat it hard for 10–15 minutes, folding it over on itself and pressing it against the pot wall, until it is smooth, elastic, glossy and pulls cleanly away from the sides. Splash in a little hot water if it tightens too much.
8. Cover and steam over the lowest heat for 5 minutes to cook out any remaining floury taste; a pinch tasted should be silky, not gritty.
9. Wet a calabash or small bowl with cold water, pack in the hot tô, and turn it out onto a plate as a smooth dome. Repeat for each eater. Serve with the sauce in a shared bowl: pinch off a piece of tô, dent it with the thumb, and scoop.

Technique

• The souring agent matters. A little tamarind water or yesterday’s soured millet water gives tô its faint tang and keeps it from setting into a bland, rubbery block; Burkinabe and Malian cooks often use potash instead for a softer, more alkaline paste.
• Tô is judged on texture. It must be firm enough to hold a dome and dent under the thumb, but never chewy. Too little beating gives lumps, too much water gives a paste that slumps on the plate.
• Baobab leaf powder and okra both do the same job, making the sauce draw into slippery threads that carry the tô down. Millet tô is grey-brown and earthier, white sorghum tô is paler and milder.
• Eat tô the day it is made. Cold, it sets hard; a splash of water and a few minutes covered over low heat brings it back.

Substitutions

• No millet or sorghum flour: fine white maize meal makes a paler, sweeter tô, which is what many town households now eat.
• No baobab leaf: double the okra, or use 3 tbsp of dried jute-leaf (kinkeliba style) powder for a similar slippery body.
• No shea butter: groundnut oil is the everyday alternative, though it loses the faintly smoky, nutty note shea gives.

Variations

• Tô with sauce d’arachide, a thinner peanut sauce, is the common weekday version in Bamako.
• Sauce gombo frais, made only with fresh okra and no leaf powder, is the lighter rainy-season form.
• In Segou the tô is served with dah, a sharp sauce built on hibiscus leaves, which sours it further.

History

The Sahelian staple of millet or sorghum flour stirred stiff, eaten by hand with sauce, and the daily bread of Mossi farming households.

Frequently asked questions

What is Tô?

Tô is a main from Burkina Faso: millet or sorghum paste with okra, baobab-leaf or kapok sauces. The Sahelian staple of millet or sorghum flour stirred stiff, eaten by hand with sauce, and the daily bread of Mossi farming households.

How long does Tô take to make?

Tô takes 20 min of preparation and 45 min of cooking. The recipe makes 6 servings. It is rated medium to make.

What can I substitute in Tô?

Yes, within limits. No millet or sorghum flour: fine white maize meal makes a paler, sweeter tô, which is what many town households now eat. No baobab leaf: double the okra, or use 3 tbsp of dried jute-leaf (kinkeliba style) powder for a similar slippery body. No shea butter: groundnut oil is the everyday alternative, though it loses the faintly smoky, nutty note shea gives.

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

Stir in the sliced okra and the baobab leaf powder. Simmer 10–12 minutes; the sauce should turn glossy, dark green-brown and rope slightly off the spoon. That slipperiness is the point of the dish, so do not boil it hard or the strands break down. Season with salt and keep hot.