Someone mentioned a few weeks ago on Facebook, if Semovita (as we Nigerians call it) can be made into a cereal as you would oats or porridge (as we Brits call it). Well you can. My mum made this for us all the time, especially when she had run out of Quaker Oats and she was in no mood to go to the store. This is very, very, simple to make and very filling too.
On those mornings you are rushing to go to work, or on a saturday morning where you just want to feed the children and go back to sleep, get out your container of Semolina or Semovita, make a quick breakfast and back to bed you go. No, Semovita can not just be made into a starchy solid eaten with Nigerian soups, it is also a bona fide breakfast with milk, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, all spice, cloves, whatever you can think off which works well with milk, go for it.
I planned to make this for Valentines breakfast weekend, and I wanted to make it even more special by making a spiced Apple Compote. For breakfast on a holiday many moons ago, the waiter, plunked this plate of heavenly aromatic spiced Apples in front of my travel companion and the aroma got me reaching out for my spoon in seconds. Generally, I don’t like apples. I detest the thing, but that day it was a battle of spoons and I didn’t let the person who ordered it eat in peace. Yes, I’m naughty like that. Hehehehehe, there is joy in sharing. I promised myself to make it when I got home and totally forgot, until yesterday by some weird chance, I passed right by apples in the supermarket and I suddenly remembered. Oooooh, Dunni, serving spiced Apple Compote with Semovita Cereal will be wicked, and so it was. Really delicious and extra special. Here’s how.
You will need
2 Green Apples - i used Golden delicious
2 tbsp of Demerara sugar - brown sugar
Freshly grated ginger
1 cinnamon stick
a sprinkling of Cloves - konofuru
a knob of butter
1/2 cup of Semovita Flour
1 1/2 cups of milk
1 cup of water
a dash of Vanilla Extract
Sugar
How To
1. Peel and core the apples, after which you quarter them and set aside.
2. In a pan, melt a knob of butter
after which you add the Demerara sugar, the apples then leave for a few minutes for the sugar to dissolve in the butter and coat the apples.
3. Sprinkle in cloves, freshly grated ginger and add the cinnamon stick. Stir and then lower the heat, to let all the flavours combine.
In about 3 – 5 minutes, the apples will take on a golden brown colour
4. Then add the freshly grated ginger, the cinnamon stick and a little water, just a little to form a syrup. Lower the heat, and let the apple stew in the spices.
then crack on with the Creamy semovita. The apples will stew gently, and absorb all the flavours, leaving a golden brown colour and a thick syrup
5. For the Semolina, add water and milk into a deep saucepan and bring to a boil, then add a dash of vanilla and lower the heat to simmer.
While the milk is boiling, dissolve the semovita flour in water, and stir with a spoon. Wait a minute or two, and you will notice, water floating back to the top, while the semovita flour has sunk below. Decant the water on top.
6. Add the semovita paste to the saucepan and stir. Ensure that the heat is till kept on low.
Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: you need to cook this on low heat to allow the semovita cook into cereal form, otherwise, it will congeal and solidify, which you do not want. This is for a cereal, not a starchy solid eaten with Nigerian soups.
7. In about 2 minutes, stir gently, and keep stirring, while you watch the paste thicken and absorb the milk.
If it is too thick, add water or milk and keep stirring until big bubbles begin to form, and the paste is smooth. Finish off with sugar to taste or honey, leave for about a minute for the sugar/honey to dissolve and you are done.
Serve your creamy Semolina with extra milk and a sprinkling of sugar. How beautiful is that
Don’t forget your spiced Apple compote. Breakfast of Champions.
Valentines Weekend Breakfast………………
or Sunday Morning Breakfast. Look at that container of Semovita you have at home and tell yourself, you now have other ways to make it. Need another picture to remind you how yummy this is, well look and imagine. Hehehehehe. Have a nice weekend people.
