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In 1999, Ruth Reichlthen editor-in-chief of Gourmet, asked me if I wanted to travel around Ethiopiamy native country, with a writer from the magazine. I hadn’t been back since my Swedish parents adopted me when I was about two, and when the plane landed there, I was overcome with emotion.
Everything seemed unknown to me and, at the same time, very comfortable. The first time I walked through the capital’s open-air market, Addis AbabaI was overwhelmed by the sights and smells of spices, herbs, and grains. I grabbed a handful of millet and wondered how roasting it could bring out its earthiness, or how cooking it slowly in a rich broth could make it creamy like a risotto.
This was the beginning of a decades-long obsession with the foods of my ancestors and my attempts to bring them into my home and onto my menus.
In the years since my trip, climate change has made it more difficult to grow food in many parts of Africa (and out). Months of torrential rains and flooding have hit the farmlands of Africa east, and scorching heat and drought in the continent’s south have left farmers with little to harvest.
However, several African cereals adapt well to difficult planting conditions. Millet, sorghum and teff are delicious, nutritious and quick to grow, even after natural disasters. Pearl millet, a staple food throughout sub-Saharan Africa, can grow in both waterlogged and barren soils. Teff is an ancient grain used in injera bread that provides up to two-thirds of Ethiopia’s protein and dietary fiber. It can grow back even after extreme drought. Fonio, a West African cereal, belongs to the millet family; It is rich in iron, B vitamins and calcium. Additionally, it sprouts quickly and thrives in almost any type of soil with relatively little water.
He climate change threatens the availability of staple foods such as wheat, rice and potatoes, so we must diversify what we have on our plate. And not just for our own consumption: crops like millet, teff and fonio can be a lifeline for farming families struggling to survive from one season to the next. They are foods that should be better known and consumed. They could become future staple foods around the world, as widespread in the United States as cocoa or coffee. This change begins by seeing Africa as a source of opportunities.
New cereals
More and more of us in the food industry are beginning to see the possibilities. My friend Garrett Oliverbrewmaster at Brooklyn Brewery, partnered with food company Yolélé to brew beer with fonio. Yolélé works directly with small farmers in the Sahel region, just south of the Sahara, to connect them to local and global markets. It is investing in processing facilities to create more employment opportunities and bring an African grain to a new audience in USA.
Creating a broader market for African grains such as fonio is not without difficulties. Teff and millet have been around for a long time, but their producers have not had the resources or infrastructure to export or market strongly in the West.
Millions of people could soon be eating fonio if the food industry followed the example of another fantastically popular ancient grain, quinoa. This Andean staple, barely known in the United States, is now on the salad bar at Whole Foods and on the menu at Sweetgreen.
What propelled you from obscurity to the mainstream? In 1984, the first exports of quinoa began to arrive in the United States, as word of its great flavor and high protein content spread among health-conscious consumers. Natural food distributors such as Eden Foods and Arrowhead Mills began packaging and marketing it, which made it easier to find just when health food stores were starting to become more popular.
In 2008, Oprah Winfrey She included quinoa in her 21-day cleanse diet, and in 2013, Gwyneth Paltrow’s cookbook It’s All Good praised the superfood.
With the growing interest in plant-based diets and nutrition, it is time for celebrities and other influencers to educate home cooks and chefs about the joys of African supergrains, and create consumer demand and a market for them. growers.
The more I cook with African ingredients in my Harlem home, the more integrated they are into my daily diet. I love making oatmeal and millet risotto for my kids. I also used teff flour as a substitute for gluten-free and high-fiber wheat flour.
One morning, while having breakfast with my son, it occurred to me to use teff to prepare his beloved pumpkin pancakes. He loves maple syrup and fruit, but I started playing with teff to make them more nutritious. The teff gives the dough a sweet, nutty touch and the kitchen smells amazing when you cook it. Now they are your favorite pancakes.
Teamwork
Chefs can also contribute to raising awareness of these climate-sustainable foods. Demystifying a little-known ingredient is something we do often. When I opened my restaurant Hav & Mar in Chelsea, I wanted to highlight the East African ingredients I’d been playing with at home in an elevated but approachable way. I thought about the teff pancakes I make with my son, which led me to talk to our team about the possibility of making a teff cookie for our guests. It took us many tries to get that cookie right. But today, our bread basket has fluffy teff cookies and injera crisps. And at our Metropolis restaurant, we make our version of the classic Ethiopian appetizer kolo with peanuts and roasted barley, sprinkled with spices and teff.
If Americans could incorporate more African ingredients into our pantries, we would not only be expanding our palates, but also creating a market for climate-sustainable foods. Instead of seeing Africa as a victim of climate change, we can expand its potential as a source of climate solutions for the world.
