Do you know the deliciously fermented porridge you drink in events? An event isn’t complete without “Ucuru bwa gukia”, we can all on that. Sometimes you cannot appreciate fermented porridge until you are old enough to listen to the way that porridge fixes up your taste buds.  Very few people know how to make it, unfortunately. Sometimes it scares me that in about two decades we will not know where to get this porridge or even how to make it. We had a chat with one of our experienced adults on how to make “Ucuru bwa gukia”

You need:

• Sorghum – main ingredient
• Water – isn’t this obvious
• A Pot or a Sufuria with a lid – you might need two, I don’t know why or what for but that’s the minimum
• Gataru  or in Swahili Uteo. I have lost trust in Google with this one people, uteo translates to teo (It’s a winnowing basket if I go by the action it does). You know what winnowing right?
• A grinding stone- This comes in a pair, one really small and a larger one for obvious reasons.

Procedure

1. Clean the sorghum and spread it under the sun to dry- The amount of sorghum that is enough for your event. Don’t be mean with the amounts my people this porridge is never enough.
2. After it’s dry pour it out in a pot and grind it – grind it lightly not like your life depends on it or like you are trying to impress anyone we are trying to make porridge, not baby food.
3. Winnow the sorghum, little by little to remove chaff, mati in Kimeru – as you are winnowing you can wiggle your hips a little it helps with getting the chaff out it really does.
4. Pour the clean sorghum into a pot and add water – enough as per your requirement. I have no idea how much but do not drown the sorghum
5. Set up the grinding stone in a grinding position and grind away. At this point your life depends on the grinding; we do not want chewy pieces in our porridge so impress us because this is where we will judge you. Ensure your hands are squeaky clean we are not trying to die we are here to get drunk on porridge.
6. Ensure there are no makie (chewy bits) in the ground porridge, I mean ensure the thickness is consistent. You will use your hands to test the thickness so scrub your hands clean before you begin this life-changing endeavour.
7. Cook for 10 minutes to ensure the thickness is consistent then store in a pot to ferment. You can also store in a pot to ferment then cook later the choice is yours really. We used to store in gourds but now we are all modern and stuff so if you have no pot or gourd just store in your sufuria don’t stress.
8. Then get drunk in your porridge and share with your family or share in the event that you made it for. Pat yourself on the back for a job well done.

P.s Those photos are for those of y’all who don’t know what is what, especially sorghum and the winnowing basket aka gataru.