Gofio cornmeal The most popular food of all time for Canarians and the best
If the early aborigenes used to make it with the barley they
known outside the islands, gofio, used to be the basic diet for
cultivated, in Gran Canaria it is “millo”, the local word for corn,
aborigenes. It continued to be the main sustenance for the
which is the most popular ingredient, and has been since the
more humble classes, in other words, most of the local popu-
17th century when the cereal first arrived and became the
lation, well into the 20th century too. “The term gofio was gi-
islanders’ favourite due to its goodness and wide range of
ven by the ancient Canarians to toasted and crushed barley. In
uses. They turned it into gofio flour, with its typical toasted
neighbouring Tenerife, the guanche population called it ahoren.
texture and flavour, ideal for both traditional consumption
Through colonization, the word gofio spread to the rest of the
(especially the ever popular “escaldón”, mixed with a broth
islands” says anthropologist Alberto García Quesada.
boiled with fish or meat) and more modern Canary cuisine.
Highly acclaimed by dietry experts and nutritionists, and a
Yuri Millares, December 2017
key ingredient in modern day Canary cuisine of local chefs, it continues to be an ever present at the majority of meal tables around the islands as a complement to breakfast and/or an accompaniment to dinner. For those who may not know, gofio is a fine flour obtained from the toasting of one or several types of –and we stress- whole cereal. Hence all of its healthy qualities and its high nutritional value (ideal even as baby food from early months of life), it maintains all the cereals’ own goodness, especially its mineral content, as opposed to white flour.
Gofio cornmeal
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