Madagascar - Mofo Gasy

Background
It is very appropriate that we follow Australia with Madagascar. Both islands are famous for having broken off from major landmasses and developing very unique fauna. Madagascar broke off from India around 80 million years ago, and did not see humans until around 2500 years ago. The first human settlers came from Borneo, which is not where one would suspect. Starting around 1000 years ago they were joined by African migrants, and even later by a wide variety of Asians and Europeans. The greatest of the European influencers were the French, who made it part of their empire in the late 19th century.
My first knowledge of Malagasy cuisine came from colleagues who had worked there collecting ants. The heart of the cuisine is rice. My sources tell me it didn't matter good a meal was, no one they worked with felt right until they had eaten rice. It then comes as no surprise the Malagasy eat the most rice per capita in the world.
I was unable to obtain a book on Malagasy cuisine, but the internet has some good resources, and searching in French gave even better results. The first option was a dish made of dried beef, cut into strips, broiled over coals, and served with a corn meal mush called kitoza. I also found the blog of an Iraqi going to school on the island, which mentioned a fritter called bemiraymofo. I could find no other mention of this dish anywhere. We decided to make a rice fritter called mofo gasy (pronounced muf gas). We got our recipe from lemurbaby on YouTube who demonstrates many Malagasy recipes.

The next challenge came in locating the correct pan. On Madagascar they have special aluminum molds. The recipe recommends using a Danish pan meant for cooking æbleskiver. These pans are very expensive and specialized, so we asked around for friends who might have one. A friend's Danish neighbor came through and we were in business.

Mofo Gasy (around 15 mofo gasy)
Yeast Starter Mix

• ½ tsp yeast
• ¼ cup hot water (100°C-110°C)
• ½ tsp sugar

1. Mix the above in a small bowl.
2. Let it rest for around 5 minutes as the yeast activates.

Batter Mixture

• ½ cup flour
• ¼ cup + 2 tbsp rice semolina (Cream of Rice)
• 4 tsp sugar
• 9 tbsp (130 ml) hot water (100°C-110°C)
• 1/8 tsp vanilla extract (optional)
• 1½ tsp sweetened condensed milk (optional)
• 1½ tsp honey (optional)

1. Mix the ingredients above in bowl.
2. Mix in the yeast starter and place in a warm place for 4-8 hours.
3. Heat your æbleskiver pan over medium heat and put a small quantity of oil in each well. Coat the sides of the wells with the oil, unless using a nonstick pan.
4. Stir the batter.
5. Quickly fill each well of the pan with the batter to just below the lip of each well.
6. Let the batter cook for about a minute.
7. Flip the cakes using thin implements such as chopsticks. (See the video at the end of this section for a visual of the technique.)
8. Reduce the heat to medium low, cover and steam for 2 minutes.
9. Remove mofo gasy from the pan.
10. Eat with sweet chai tea or sweet coffee.

Results and Discussion
It will definitely take several more attempts before I get the hang of making these. I would also buy a non-stick pan if I were starting from scratch. The cast iron pan we had worked great but we a little bit of sticking. I made the mistake of filling a couple too high on the second batch and ruined a great photo of golden brown ones. I will err on the side of under-filling the wells in the future. When you flip them, any liquid batter will run, so you need to find a balance of temperature that solidifies the batter at the top of the well without burning the mofo gasy.
The outsides of the mofo gasy are slightly crisp and the insides are like thick hot cereal. They have a slightly sweet taste and a little bit of a sour smell. The texture is puffy and slightly chewy. We think you could pretty easily adapt this recipe to make it work for a wide variety of grains instead of just rice.