Witch came up to me this morning with a plate of brown gunk. She is the one that is into healthy nutrition and the other puppets secretly make fun of her, as what she makes often doesn’t look or smell so good, or sound very palatable. Just to give you an example: for a while I had a pretty bad cough I couldn’t shift. She listened to it for weeks and weeks and finally she got fed up and made me eat a clove of raw garlic (garlic seems to be her panacea). It didn’t appeal to me at all, but she can be so persistent and I eventually swallowed it all. And would you believe it? The cough went away. But I digress.

So, this morning she presented me this plate of gooey stuff. “What’s that?” I asked suspciously, even though on closer scrutiny it looked like a sumptuous chocolate mousse. But I know Witch never cooks something as yummy as that.

“You say you don’t have any energy left. I really want to get you back to your old self. Otherwise we Dedes are doomed. So I made you this. This will fix you.”

“But what is it?’ I sniffed at it and it didn’t smell like garlic. I was relieved. I even thought I smelt a hint of brandy. But Witch is a teetotaller and she wouldn’t put any alcohol in it.

“Don’t be so suspicious, just try it…. It is a healthy chocolate pudding!”

“Now that is a contradiction in itself!” I said, though it made me curious. I took a deep breath and tried it. It tasted divine!

Witch watched me with great satisfaction. “Healthy food doesn’t have to be unpalatable. Do you believe me now?”

“To be honest this chocolate pudding doesn’t taste healthy at all” I said. “Something this delicious surely can’t be good for you. So tell me, what is it made of?”

“It’s made of teff flour”

“Teff?” I’ve never heard of it.

“It is an ethopian grain. Ever wondered why there are so many good ethopian long-distance runners? They eat bread made from teff. It is gluten free and has a very good balance of amino acids. A high content of calcium, zinc, iron, magnesium…” Witch started to lecture while my eyes glazed over.

“Just give me the recipe” I begged. “I want to have more of this.”

“You know that I don’t have recipes. I just experiment with food, but the recipe went something like this.” Witch took a pen and paper and wrote down:

Put 1/2 cup of teff flour in a pot and add two cups of water. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 15 mins. Stir continuously. (It will have the consisency of custard). Let it cool. Combine half a cup of cocoa powder with sugar (3 tablespoons will do, but if you have a very sweet tooth you might want to have more. If you don’t like sugar use stevia instead) and mix into the teff custard. Put in the fridge for an hour or so.

“The cooling down is very important” Witch pointed out while she wrote down the recipe. If the teff is still too hot when you put the cocoa in, the result will be firmer, more like a christmas pudding. When the mixture is cooler it is more like a mousse.

“But didn’t I taste a hint of brandy?”

“Ah well” Witch winked at me “that was my little treat for you. You can put all sorts of flavourings in.”