You’d think this a regular blog post on how to make peanut porridge. But no. This is a post on rising despite adversity.
My biggest cooking fear is spoiling an entire pot of something and one gloomy Saturday morning, my biggest cooking fear came through.
All week all I could think about was making peanut porridge Saturday morning. So I watch several TikTok videos and gathered my ingredients:
Raw peanuts
Almonds
Walnuts
Almond Milk
The rest I had at home:
Cinnamon
Nutmeg
Vanilla
Condense milk
I wasn’t going to get the raw peanuts but after discussing it with a few friends they said “Vanessa dah porridge deh sound bougie” or “Traditionally people only use regular raw peanuts” so I added regular peanuts to the mix.
Lacking traditionality is my main reason for fearing cooking traditional Jamaican foods. I learned to cook mostly from Foods Class and observing my grandma not keen enough in my younger years and then being thrown in the deep end to take up the household chef mantle when she got sick.
So, most times when I cook it may not have the full traditional Jamaican flavor or method but best believe it aguh taste good!
Back to the hardest meal I ever made. I woke up super early told my man to come over before his engagement for breakfast feeling confident that I would angle 📐 that peanut porridge but boy did it angle 📐 me !
This is the thing about watching short TikTok videos it’s at times too condensed you miss key points. Like the consistency to which your blended peanuts, almonds and walnuts should be before adding it to your pot of boiling milk. I thought the thicker the better but no the thicker the grainier because boy did the texture of my porridge taste like eating tiny rocks and sand ! I thought it would’ve dissolved but I’ve never been more wrong.
And wrong when the man showed up ready for his favorite peanut porridge. Embarrassing!
Typically, Vanessa would cry at the slightest inconvenience, and this was a huge inconvenience, so I should’ve been bawling and throwing the pot through the window. But I decided I’m more than just a girl ! I’m that girl! A strong black Jamaican woman who will make peanut porridge in Jesus' name!
So I washed out my pot and started again.
I put my nuts and oats that I forgot the first time in the blender along with milk and blended it out to a smoothie like texture. I proceeded to add that to my gently boiling milk with a tups of salt. Stirring occasionally when it got to a nice thick consistency I flavored it by adding too much cinnamon lol and some vanilla and condensed milk. Let that bubble up some more and voila Peanut porridge!
In the words of Alkaline “try an again !” It was so fulfilling to have not given up and that day I learned how to not make peanut porridge and how much cinnamon is too much cinnamon but I did satisfy my craving and got one step closer to not being a Scared Jamaican.
Now the only question is do you have your porridge with bread or crackers ?
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