Family cooking at Assomada, Cape Verde with SOS mother

In Cape Verde, the sweet smell of couscous attracts anybody passing the kitchen. And Isabel's ten children are no exception!

Couscous Cape Verde style
Isabel's kitchen is full of big pots. Pots for 'cachupa' (a traditional stew), pots to cook a large whole fish with tomatoes, onions and lime juice.

...and pots to make the traditional couscous, a sweet dish that her ten children will enjoy tonight. The SOS mother from SOS Children's Village Assomada certainly likes to treat her children! In a few moments you'll find out how she makes her couscous!

Once a week, Isabel makes couscous for her large family. It's a time that all the children love, starting from the nice sweet smell, that spreads through the house, to when they all sit around the big table to enjoy the hot couscous, with butter and a glass of milk.

Today, Isabel is preparing her maize couscous. Twelve-year-old Vanessa knows how to cook couscous and often gives her a hand, but today she is busy playing with her SOS sister Monika upstairs in their room. Most of Isabel's other children are out playing in the village. Only eleven-year-old Emmanuel is hanging around the kitchen, looking after his baby brother.

It's very fast to make, but you've got to plan ahead a little if you want to make couscous. Isabel's family-sized ceramic pot has been soaked overnight in a bucket full of water, so that it is ready to be used today. Isabel pours 900 grams of maize flour and 200 grams of potato flakes into a large plastic bowl. The quantities are always big when you're cooking for eleven!

First, she mixes the contents with her hands. Then, she adds a little water to dampen the mixture (but not so much as to make it too runny). Rubbing the mixture in her hands to avoid having lumps, Isabel explains how important it is to do this step properly. In the end, the mixture should look like semolina. Afterwards, you add as much sugar as you want, depending on taste. You can also add cinnamon, but Isabel hasn't got any at the moment.

In the meantime, she has boiled some water in a metal pot. It needs to be a good-sized pot so that you can place the ceramic couscous pot on top, to steam the couscous. The mixture is ready. Isabel puts it in the special pot which she has just dried, and places it on top of the pot of boiling water. It's a pot with a round bottom that has holes to let the steam pass through. To make sure the steam doesn't escape, you have to seal the two pots with a mixture of flour and water. Finally, she covers the ceramic pot with a lid, and leaves it to cook for 30 minutes. She then lays the long kitchen table.

Very soon, those children who have stayed in the house smell the sweet dish. Two of them run out to tell their brothers and sisters that the couscous is ready and within a few minutes, everybody is seated around the table with big smiles on their faces. While Isabel makes sure that everyone has a slice of hot couscous on their plate, the older siblings pour milk into everyone's glasses and help the little ones put salted butter onto their couscous. Forks and knives in hand, the family suddenly becomes very quiet. It's no wonder! The couscous is simply delicious!

SOS Children has been working in Cape Verde since 1984 and has two unique children's villages at Assomada and Sao Domingos. More than 160 children are supported at these children's villages and a further 1,000 children and families are supported in the community through projects run from SOS Social Centres including family support, health counselling and training workshops as well as providing support for street children.