Senegalese · Dessert
Thiakry
- Intermediate
- 25 min
- roughly 2 of 4 for cost
- Vegetarian
Leads with richness that coats and comforts, a floral thread lifting the aroma, fading in warm spice.
Ingredients
- 250 g fine millet couscous (thiéré)
- 80 ml water, for moistening
- 1 tsp groundnut oil
- pinch of salt
- 400 g thick soured milk (lait caillé) or plain whole yoghurt
- 150 g crème fraîche or soured cream
- 80 g sugar
- 1 vanilla pod, seeds scraped
- 50 g raisins
- 1 tsp orange blossom water
- grated nutmeg
Equipment
Sheet pan · Grater / zester
The skills inside
Steaming: basket, leaf and lid
Allergen screen
Found: gluten · dairy · peanuts
Screened for: gluten, dairy, egg, nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, molluscs, soy, sesame, celery, mustard, lupin, alcohol. Not screened: sulphites.
Screened by keyword from the ingredient list, not reviewed by a person; check every label for what the list cannot show.
Method
- Sprinkle the water and oil over the millet a little at a time, raking it through with spread fingers until every grain is damp and separate with no clumps.
- Steam uncovered in a couscoussier over boiling water for twenty minutes, tip onto a tray, break up every lump with a fork and sprinkle again.
- Steam a second time until a grain crushed on the tooth is tender all the way through with no chalky centre, then spread it out and cool it completely, fluffing as it goes.
- Whisk the soured milk, crème fraîche, sugar, vanilla seeds, orange blossom water and salt until smooth and pourable.
- Fold the cold millet and the raisins into the cold cream, chill an hour so the raisins swell, and grate nutmeg over at the table.
How to tell it is going right
This dish has no standard of its own yet. It is judged on the technique it exercises: checked at the pan, while there is still something to be done about it.
Steaming: basket, leaf and lid 130 recipes
- Steam was running before the food went in: the water at a rolling boil and vapour coming steadily through the basket, rather than the whole thing warming up together.
- Nothing touches the water at any point: the food sits clear of it throughout, and the level neither drops enough to boil dry nor rises enough to wet it.
- The lid stayed on. Every lift costs the chamber its heat, and the number of lifts should be as close to none as the dish allows.
- Lifted out, the surface is glossy and plump with its colour heightened rather than dulled: greens brighter than they went in, not olive.
- Cooked through with the shape intact: it yields at the centre without having slumped or split, and there is no more than a spoonful of clean condensate beneath it.
Where it goes wrong The lid was loose or dripping and the condensate fell back onto the food, so it arrives waterlogged and pale with its seasoning washed down into the bottom of the dish.
At the Table
- The Pour
- Sauternes
- Also Right
- Demi-sec Champagne
- From the Taps
- Belgian tripel
- Zero-Proof
- Jasmine tea
The sweetness rule is absolute: the pour must be sweeter than the plate, and acid keeps it from cloying.
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