Bouye Juice (Baobab Drink)

Bouye is the Wolof name for the fruit of the baobab, and bouye juice is what Senegal makes from it. The fruit hangs in hard woody pods on the most recognisable tree of the African savannah, and inside is a dry, chalky white pulp with a distinctly sour, citrus-like flavour. Baobab has been a staple across the Sahel for centuries, in Senegal and well beyond, and every part of the tree gets used: leaves as a vegetable and thickener, seeds pressed for oil, bark for rope. The English name for the fruit, monkey bread, describes the pulp reasonably well. In Hausa the fruit is kwalba, which is the name that appears in this particular recipe. The method is soaking rather than juicing. The pulp is left in water for around an hour to soften, worked with a whisk to release as much as possible, then strained. What happens next varies: drunk plain and sweetened it is bouye juice, while blending it with nono, the fermented milk of northern Nigeria and the Sahel, or with yoghurt, gives the thicker milkshake version this recipe describes. Both are drunk cold, and it freezes into ice lollies, which is how children across the region most often have it.