5 recipes with gofio from La Gomera, the most traditional Canary Island ingredient
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I would dare to say that gofio is the ingredient for which the Canary Islanders long for when they are far from their land. It is a very popular food in the islands that has a protected designation of origin, but it is not common to find it in stores outside the archipelago. One of the most famous is the gofio that is made on the island of La Gomera, where several factories are located where it is produced in an artisanal way.
Gofio Imendi in La Gomera
Example of this is the artisanal gofio mill Imendi, a place where gofio is ground, roasted and produced from different cereals in a completely artisanal way. Founded in 2003 by Celestino Hernández and Cristina Mendoza, its mission is to maintain and protect the values and traditions of La Gomera, while using the most modern machinery to achieve a quality product that does not lose the traditional process of elaboration.
Molino de Gofio Imendi produces from a strictly selected grain in order to maintain a high degree of quality, and this is demonstrated by the recognitions achieved by the company as the best gofio of the Canary Islands in the 2018 and 2019 editions, awards that are joined by numerous distinctions that the products have received since 2015.
What is gofio?
Freshly ground gofio in La Gomera
Well, nothing more and nothing less than a flour that is made from previously toasted cereals and, in some cases, also legumes. The most common is known as gofio de millo, made from corn, but we can also find gofio made from wheat, oats, spelt, barley, chickpeas or even a mixture of several cereals. It is a very versatile ingredient in the kitchen that can be used in both sweet and savory dishes.
One of its great advantages is that it can be used without cooking, since being made with toasted cereals does not leave that unpleasant raw flour taste that traditional flours leave. Gofio can be used as a cold thickener to give texture to fruit smoothies, soups or vegetable creams; to give a delicious toasted flavor to breakfast milk; to prepare cookie doughs, breads, biscuits, cakes, pancakes; to prepare sweet creams, custards, ice cream, can even be used to prepare baby food as soon as they are old enough to introduce cereals in their diet.
Nutritional properties of gofio
For the preparation of gofio, cereals are roasted and ground, nothing else. They are not subjected to refining or hydrolyzing processes, so their nutritional properties are maintained being a food rich in complex carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins B and C and minerals such as iron, potassium, magnesium and calcium, which is easier to digest than flours made from raw cereals.
Where to buy gofio
Fortunately, although outside the Canary Islands we do not see gofio on the shelves of supermarkets, thanks to the internet we can now buy this ingredient easily and in a few days receive it at home.
How to use gofio in the kitchen
As we mentioned a few paragraphs above, it is very easy to introduce gofio in everyday recipes, especially in baking and, in most cases, it will be enough to replace the flour with gofio. But we can also use it to thicken sauces and broths adding it to these at the last moment. It is common to add a spoonful of gofio to vegetable soup dishes.
But apart from these uses, there are some traditional Canarian recipes that are made with gofio and are more famous than potatoes with mojo. Most of them are very austere recipes, because in times of poverty, gofio was the main sustenance of the most disadvantaged.
Escaldón de gofio
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It is also known as gofio escaldado and is eaten as an appetizer. A humble recipe if ever there was one, it’s a way to turn a tasty broth left over from another preparation into a nutritious dish to take the edge off hunger without having to cook.
To prepare escaldón you need very few ingredients:
Homemade meat, ham, vegetable or fish broth, 200 ml Gofio, 50 g Garlic, 2 or 3 cloves Onion, 1/2 Mint, a few leaves
The preparation is very simple, we just have to bring the broth to a boil and pour the gofio in a dry bowl. When the broth comes to a boil, remove it from the heat and pour it little by little over the gofio while stirring to form a thick porridge.
This blanched gofio is served hot accompanied by fried sliced garlic, some onion hulls and some mint leaves. It is taken as an appetizer or as an accompaniment to other typical Canarian dishes such as potatoes with mojo.
Gofio kneaded with palm honey
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Popularly known as pella de gofio, this sweet is very easy to prepare, as it does not require any cooking. To sweeten this dessert, Gomeran palm honey is used, another of the great products of Canarian gastronomy.
Gofio de La Gomera, 250 g Water, 125 ml Gomeran palm honey, 100 ml Cinnamon, 1 teaspoon Crocanti or almond granules, 50 g (optional) Raisins, 30 g (optional)
Then add the palm honey and knead for a few minutes until you have a compact and uniform dough. Add the almonds and raisins and continue kneading until everything is integrated.
Shape the dough into a cylinder and cut into slices one centimeter thick.
Wait a minute, a toasted flour, honey, cinnamon, almonds …. Doesn’t it remind you of something? Exactly, gofio pella is very similar to the typical Christmas polvorones and that is why it is also known as canarian nougat.
Gofio ice cream without an ice cream maker
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Gofio de La Gomera, 50 g Gomera palm honey, 4 tablespoons Condensed milk, 250 ml Whipping cream, 300 ml
In a bowl, mix the gofio with the Gomera palm honey and condensed milk. In another bowl we whip the cream, which must be very cold, with the help of an electric whisk.
Then, we gradually integrate the whipped cream into the gofio mixture using enveloping movements, making sure that the mixture loses as little air as possible.
Once everything is integrated, put the mixture in a mold, preferably metallic, cover it with plastic wrap and leave it in the freezer for a few hours until it hardens.
Gofio mousse
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Very similar to ice cream, but without letting it freeze, so it’s perfect for when we don’t have time or desire to wait for ice cream to form.
Gofio de La Gomera, 75 g Gomera palm honey, 2 tablespoons Condensed milk, 200 ml Whipping cream, 300 ml Egg whites, 2 pcs Salt, 1/8 teaspoon
The preparation is very similar to what we have seen in the gofio ice cream recipe. We mix this with the palm honey and condensed milk and incorporate the whipped cream with wrapping movements.
Finally, whip the egg whites until stiff, add them to the mixture also with wrapping movements, distribute in glasses or cups and let cool in the refrigerator for a couple of hours.
Banana and gofio pancakes
Although we can not say that the pancakes are a traditional recipe, we can say that it is one of the things we like to have for breakfast on days when we have enough time to calmly enjoy the first meal of the day. And this version of the typical American pancakes, which have gofio, banana and palm honey, can not have more Canarian flavor.
Gofio de La Gomera, 180 g Brown sugar, 50 g Milk, 200 ml Water, 50 ml Butter, 25 g and a little more to grease the pan Ripe plantain, 1 pc Eggs, 2 Salt, 1/4 teaspoon Chemical impeller, 3 teaspoons Gomera palm honey, to serve
The preparation of these gofio and banana pancakes is the same that we follow for all the pancakes which consists of mixing on one side the dry ingredients and on the other the wet ingredients to finally mix it all with very few movements and then form the pancakes in the pan.
In a bowl mix the milk, eggs, melted butter -which should not be hot, because it could curdle part of the egg-, water and ripe banana. Blend everything with a glass or hand blender until you have a homogeneous mixture.
In another bowl we mix the gofio with the sugar, salt and the impeller, make a hole in the center and add little by little the liquid mixture while we are integrating it with a whisk.
Heat a frying pan over medium-high heat, grease it with butter and, when it is hot, pour a ladle of the dough in the center. When we see that the surface of the dough begins to fill with bubbles, we turn it over with the help of a spatula and let it cook on the other side for a minute.
When it is ready, we remove it to a plate and repeat the process until we finish with the dough. To keep them warm what we do is to place each pancake that comes out of the pan on top of the previous one, forming a tower. When we have done them all, we drizzle the tower with palm honey and serve it immediately.
As you can see, gofio can be used in many simple and delicious recipes. And I don’t know about you, but after all this, I’m already imagining a gofio cheesecake and my mouth is watering. When I make it, I’ll tell you how it turned out.
