I must sheepishly confide that I did not realize what the thick brown cylinders were at first. Unfortunately, I'm much more prone to use it's highly processed stripped counter part. If I could only explain the amount of nonsense that is carried inside these wooden slabs amongst the immense traffic on the streets; only then could you understand how I simply wrote the them off as twigs or branches from the latest renovation.
In all honestly, it probably would have taken a greater length of time to identify the product if it wasn't for my friend Jeff. Him and of course our seriously crazy trip to Ketu Market.
Ketu Market is one of the largest produce markets in Lagos State. It was for our up and coming restaurant that Jeff and I got the hair-brained idea to tromp through Ketu in search of inspiration. Inspiration that could be laying somewhere between the mud and chaos of the market. It was only with sheer genius that we pleaded with our lovely Cuban friend Neysa, to come and fight the fierce pricing battle with us.
Neysa is a restaurant manager by day, and a cold hearted bargainer by night. She has the charm that can amuse any vendor, and a wicked "last price" that she slaps non apologetically into their leathered hands as she walks away with goods. Needless to say this receives mixed reactions, and not all vendors find the humor in it as I do. Neysa is fabulous.
There we were, three people that could not stand out any more at a Nigerian market. Rain had beaten the soil heavily through out the week before. Thus creating a large sink whole of black mud for us to fight from engulfing our foot ware. All the while dodging bullets of rain and humorous remarks from the sea of spectators.
We made our way about the market, and Jeff noticed a young man struggling to push a heavy cart of sugar cane. Selling the 12" sticks at a standardized rate of N50 ($0.33) we picked up a few for our up coming creations. I can't recall exactly what or even if we did end up utilizing it. There was stiff competition between the fresh pink guavas and kilos upon kilos of other random produce that we hulled into the restaurant's kitchen.
Since then I have not taken time to search for the sugar cane again. Perhaps I'd passed them here and there with a preoccupied mind, but recently it was hard not to take notice as I passed the 8th... no 9th cart of them with in a 1/2 mile stretch.
I had a few ideas of how to avail my new purchase. One of which was of course the traditional Vietnamese Chao Tom. Shrimp blended with fresh herbs and aromatic flavorings, skewered onto thick sticks of sugar cane and grilled till brilliantly caramelized.
Now, what I did was no Chao Tom but I was sparked into expanding sugar canes's potential. I prepared an all natural sugar cane syrup. Literally chopped up sugar cane stalks boiled in a few cups of water. Then strained, slightly reduced and cooled. Leaving you with the purest tasting sweetener for any beverage. Not overly sweet, but carrying a natural rich caramel flavor that is beautiful in cocktails, teas and coffees. Use a generous drizzle over fresh fruits for the kids, or infuse the syrup with flavors such as ginger or mint to spice it up.
I will surly attack the Chao Tom soon, and perhaps I will even be compelled to post yet another version of it onto the World Wide Web. But as it is for now I am more than pleased with the purity and goodness of my simple syrup.
Pure Sugar Cane Syrup
There really is not much of a recipe to report on this one, just more of a method.
1 Sugar can stalk, roughly 12"
Water 3 cups
Peel and roughly cut the sugar cane into small sticks. Use the back of your knife to lightly pound the sticks, just enough to get the juices flowing again. Throw them into boiling water and let it simmer away. Keep on the heat for about 15-20 minuets, continuing to observe the water level. You don't want it to boil down to nothing, but you want to keep it on long enough so the sweetness can come out and affect the water.
Strain the liquid from the solid pieces with a fine mesh strainer.Return the liquid to the fire and let it reduce for another 5 minutes. This just allows the flavor to intensify.
Cool at room temperature and store in the refrigerator.
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