Zenjiflava: Boko-Boko

Boko-Boko (Meat porridge)

I remember the first time I ever tried this classic dish, known also in Arabic as Harees, at a friend's mother-in-law's house. Effectively a meat porridge, it takes some getting used to if you haven't tried something like this before, but it's a tasty, nourishing and filling dish that can be made with chicken, goat or lamb.

This recipe is designed to feed family, friends and neighbours. Cook it with an open heart!

• 450g chicken/ goat/ lamb on bones
• 1 small cinnamon stick
• Half tsp each cumin powder and turmeric
• 600g cracked wheat
• 3 tbsp ghee (available from most supermarkets and Indian shops)

The night before you plan to prepare your bokoboko dish, rinse the wheat and immerse it in water. The next day you can drain it and place it in a cooking pot with the meat and slightly over 2 litres of water. Mix in the cumin, turmeric and cinnamon, and simmer the mixture for 10 minutes. Continue to cook, but remove the bones from the meat and shred the meat into tiny pieces.

Skim off any froth from the mixture, return the meat, then cover the mixture with a lid and cook on a low heat for up to 4 hours. If necessary, add more water. When it has finished cooking, add the ghee and mix until the dish reaches a porridge-like consistency. Add salt and pepper to flavour. It can then be topped with fried onion.

Or if you want to challenge your tastebuds with something new, you can skip the cumin and turmeric in the original recipe and at the end add milk and either sugar or honey.