Gofio

Gofio is a flour made from roasted grains, most often wheat or certain varieties of maize, though it can also be made from other starchy plants such as beans, and historically from fern root. Some varieties carry a little added salt. It is a long-standing ingredient of Canarian cooking, where it is kneaded into a dough, stirred into milk for breakfast, dissolved in soups and stews as a thickener, or cooked into the thick porridge called escaldon. Canarian emigrants carried its use to the Caribbean and the Western Sahara, and a similar toasted flour is used in Argentina, Uruguay and Chile. Roasting the grain before milling destroys mold, improves flavour and partly breaks down starch and proteins. The name Gofio Canario is a registered protected designation of origin and protected geographical indication of the European Commission since 2014.