Suff ("Refreshing Drink Made from Sunflower Seeds")

"Suff is a delicious, refreshing drink consumed primarily during Lent or fasting.  The liquid can be mixed with injera to make Yesuff Fitfit." ~ D. J. Mesfin, Exotic Ethiopian Cooking


This Friday's dinner (Yegebs Siljo, or barley paste) has a few steps to it and it has to sit for three days, so I needed to get started early.  The first step involved making barley flour, which I'm totally game for, but, unfortunately, I don't have a flour mill and couldn't find one locally (a neighbor suggested using my coffee grinder, but I think grinding up four cups of flour is too much to ask of it).  By the time I get a flour mill in, it will be too late for this recipe, so I simply bought another package of barley flour at the store.  Easy enough!


The second step was discovered as I read through the ingredient list for the yegebs siljo: sunflower juice.  A Google search yielded not sources, but recipes, including this one.  If you have a chance, visit the blog of the person who submitted it, Yewoin's Family Cooking.  It's in my sidebar, but I felt it deserves special mention, as it's truly the real deal: an Ethiopian woman and her recipes.  

This was the recipe I used, though I later discovered that there is a recipe in Exotic Ethiopian Cooking, on page 72.  Of course there is.  I do wish this book was cross-referenced; it would make some things much easier!


There wasn't much to this recipe.  You get some sunflower seeds (raw, I assumed):

Bring them to a boil for 15 minutes:

Drain them:

Throw them into a blender with some more water:

And blend:

After blending it, you need to sieve the liquid to remove the sunflower seed mush:

It looks like sunflower milk!

At this point, you're supposed to add some rue (also known as "tena adam" in Ethiopia).  The recipe I referenced above mentioned using rue or ginger, so I went with the ginger.  I think I'm going to have to convert one of my raised beds into an Ethiopian herb garden this summer!  And maybe another into a teff field.  

I just peeled the ginger on the non-nubbly sides and dropped it into the sunflower juice.  The instructions state that when you're ready to drink it, you add sugar or honey to taste.  The two-year-olds demanded a taste and I forgot to sweeten it for them; it didn't go over very well.  I haven't yet tried it because I want to make sure I have enough for the yegebs siljo!