Maafuh

The Maahefun time of the year is certainly an exciting one. We get to eat great food, try out new recipes and most importantly get to come together with friends and family.

For this week’s new recipe we have a Maahefun staple, Maafuh, and making it is pretty straightforward. However, do note that when making Maafuh we have to use roasted bimbi flour. Some shops do sell already roasted bimbi flour but we made ours with an unroasted one and just dry roasted it in a pan. Also, those with a serious sweet tooth should definitely add more sugar than we did.

Note: The bimbi flour packet we used indicated Sorghum as the English term for Bimbi on its label. However, it's very likely that the correct English term for Bimbi is Finger Millet; we've found multiple sources to support that and some of our readers have gotten in touch with us about it too.

Serves: 3-4

Ingredients:

• 2 medium sized ripe bananas
• 3 tbsp. sugar (or to taste)
• ¾ cup grated coconut
• ¾ cup bimbi flour

Instructions:

1. Heat up a pan, and once its well heated, add the bimbi flour and dry roast it on medium heat until the bimbi takes on a golden brownish colour and you can smell it’s nutty aroma. Once it’s roasted, remove from pan and set it aside to cool down a bit.

2. Peel the bananas, put them in a bowl, add the sugar, and using your fingers mash them together until well combined and there are no overly large banana chunks. 

3. Add the grated coconut to the banana sugar mixture and use your fingers to mix well again.

4. Finally, add the roasted bimbi flour to the mixture and mix well. Have a taste and see if you want to add more sugar. Also, in the following step we are going to roll the mixture into balls. So test whether the mixture is thick enough to roll. For any reason, if it’s not, add some more bimbi flour.

5. Pick up a portion of the mixture with your fingers and make a ball by holding it between your palms and rolling it in a circular motion. Do this until you run out of the mixture, and you are done.