Recipe of the Week: Bouillie d'arrachides (peanut corn pudding/cereal)

...as part of a typical Ramadan break-fast feast at sun-down

Menu: tea (with milk and sugar), bouillie (with or without arrachides), bananas, fresh papaya, avocado and tomato salads (cut up avocado and tomato, tossed with vinaigrette of mayonnaise, oil, vinegar, and salt), barbequed beef (served on plate in bite-size pieces), beignets (fried dough – large ring beignets from wheat flour, and little ball beignets from bean flour), and peeled oranges

Bouillie is a thick corn pudding often served with breakfast; the grand-daddy of oatmeal and grits, it is so thick and heavy that it can keep a person full all day long. Last night, we ate peanut brouillie – a delicious modification! – as the main part of our filling nightly Ramadan feast. It is pretty sweet, so you could pull off bouillie d'arrachides for dessert and breakfast, as well. Makes about 15 cups.

1. put about 3 handfuls of corn flour in large bowl, massage in just enough water so that the flour coheres into tiny balls (looks like a bowl of snow or small hail)
2. in a large pot, heat 20 cups water and mix in a serving spoon-ful of peanut butter (can mix in with hands, if water not too hot)
3. once water boils, lower heat and mix in corn flour
4. continue to heat and stir, and add more corn flour as needed, until consistency becomes thick and runny...tiny balls of corn flour should not entirely dissolve, so the texture is kind of bumpy
5. mix in sugar and milk (powdered milk used here) to taste, then remove from heat
6. serve in teacups, plain