Fura da Nono

dense balls of spiced, cooked pearl millet dough crumbled into cool soured cow's milk, the refreshing, sustaining drink-meal of the Hausa and Fulani of the West African Sahel

Origin: Nigeria

From the journey of Millet.

Across the dry savannah belt of the West African Sahel, pearl millet is the staff of life, and fura da nono is one of its most beloved forms: a meal and a drink in one, carried by herders across the plains and sold from calabashes in every northern Nigerian market. 'Fura' is the millet: pearl millet flour, cooked and pounded with spices (ginger, cloves, sometimes chilli and the grains of selim) into a stiff dough and rolled into dense balls that keep for the journey. 'Nono' is the milk: the soured, slightly fermented cow's milk of the Fulani, the great cattle-herders of the Sahel. To eat, the fura ball is crumbled and mashed into a bowl of the cool, tangy nono, sometimes sweetened with a little sugar, to make a thick, refreshing, nourishing drink-porridge that sustains through the heat and the long distances of the savannah. It is the quintessential food of the Hausa and Fulani, a portable, fermented, millet-and-milk meal that has fed the peoples of the Sahel for centuries, and a perfect expression of pearl millet in the land where it was first tamed.

Ingredients

The Fura

  • 300 g pearl millet flour
  • 1 tbsp fresh ginger, grated
  • 4 cloves, ground
  • 1 pinch ground chilli (optional)
  • hot water, to bind

To Serve

  • 1 litre nono (soured/fermented cow's milk), or plain kefir or thin natural yoghurt
  • sugar or honey, to taste (optional)

Method

  1. Mix a third of the millet flour with the ginger, cloves, and chilli, and just enough hot water to make a stiff dough. Roll into small balls and boil in water for 15 to 20 minutes until cooked through.
  2. Pound the boiled balls in a mortar (or pulse in a processor) with the remaining raw millet flour, adding a little of the cooking water, until you have a smooth, very stiff dough.
  3. Roll the dough into smooth, dense balls about the size of a small orange. These are the fura, and they can be kept for a day or two.
  4. To serve, crumble and mash a fura ball into a bowl or calabash of cool soured milk (nono), breaking it up and stirring until thick and smooth.
  5. Sweeten with a little sugar or honey if you like, and drink cool.

Notes

Nono, the Fulani soured milk, is the authentic liquid; kefir, thin natural yoghurt, or buttermilk are good substitutes. The spicing varies by household and region: ginger and cloves are usual, with chilli, black pepper, and the West African grains of selim (uda) often added. Fura is also eaten with the cereal drink kunu. Pearl millet flour is sold at West African and South Asian grocers.

The Gastrographer

The Gastrographer

Mapping Culinary History

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Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route
Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control
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