Rumblings: Maltabella

23 January 2013 - 14:46 By Food Weekly
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Guest voice Andrea Burgener entices us with rich dark sorghum porridge that could be the new superfood

The thing I loved most about driving down to Cape Town when we were little was the halfway overnight stop. And why I loved the stop was mainly because I knew we'd be getting Maltabella for breakfast in the morning. Every hotel back then, from the swankiest to the most lowly, served this dark addictive sorghum porridge amid the other morning goods.

Back then, we knew not of Bill Granger's ricotta flapjacks, of French toast made with ciabatta, of smoothies and frappés. There was no "cool" breakfast. You did bacon and eggs, cereal or porridge. A halved grapefruit before, if the place aimed at sophistication. Of course we could always have had Maltabella at home, but it was never the same as eating it off that thick white continental crockery in a hotel dining room. Sometimes there'd be Tasty Wheat, Kreemy Meal and Jungle Oats too (are we not a country of the best porridges in the world?) but the musky, mapley depth of Maltabella was what I craved.

Cultivated and eaten for far longer than maize in Africa, grain sorghum is really our most traditional porridge (we also, just as traditionally, consume sorghum in beer form). Maltabella is the brand name that brought the meal - mabele in Sotho - to South African whiteys, in silky-smooth, extra-malty form. Many countries, poor fools, only use sorghum as livestock fodder. I always think people who don't love Maltabella (and mabela meal generally) just haven't had it well prepared. Is that the reason I hardly ever get offered it anymore? Why it seems to be on fewer and fewer supermarket shelves? With all the gluten intolerance that seems suddenly to afflict absolutely everyone in a certain income bracket, you'd think this gluten-free option would be first prize. Or are we just too posh, too fashionable, for Maltabella now? That's so depressing. It's easy to get hold of mabela meal, the more traditional and coarser-textured version (which is also served as a savoury) at any supermarket, but I have too much imprinting from my un-PC childhood memories to be swayed.

A bowl of Maltabella should be viewed very firmly in the same sparkly light as French toast or custard: sweet, rich, comforting indulgence. It's when people try to get worthy about it that the problems creep in. Let's assume you've made the stuff following the packets instructions slavishly, as you should. Now: first - and you'd think obviously - the Maltabella must be served scaldingly hot. Tepid porridge is prison gruel. Secondly, the right condiments should be at hand. These (and only these) are as follows: salt (more than you think); cold unsalted butter (follow salt tip, and amplify); white or pale brown sugar (less than you think); and a splash of milk.

The world will explode if you bring margarine anywhere close to Maltabella. Strangely, both honey and cream are terrible with sorghum meal. The great South African store St Marcus in London promotes the use of honey, but do not let them lead you astray. Thirdly: mix a large lump of butter in initially, but add further generous blobs bit by bit onto each dark, malty spoonful, so that every mouthful features hot, salty-sweet porridge up against cool, still-melting butter. Surely such a bowlful must convert all Maltabella haters and fence-sitters? A lurid helping of that despicable instant oats can never compete.

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