Ogidigbo (Igala Food)

Ogidigbo is an Igala dish of fresh corn, blended to a coarse paste with pepper, onion and crayfish, wrapped and steamed until it sets. It is structurally the same idea as moi moi, the Nigerian bean pudding, with corn standing in for the beans, and Igala cooks describe it in exactly those terms. The Igala are a people of Kogi State in central Nigeria, and their food is considerably less documented than that of the country's larger groups. Dishes like ogidigbo do not appear in the general Nigerian repertoire that gets exported, which makes recording it a more useful act than recording another version of jollof. It is everyday food rather than ceremonial food. The corn will not go as smooth as beans do, and Igala cooks say so plainly rather than treating it as a fault. That slightly grainy texture is what ogidigbo is. It is traditionally steamed in banana leaves, which contribute a green note that no other wrapper gives, though the practical alternatives now are the small plastic wraps used for moi moi or recycled tins. Palm oil is the recommended fat and gives the characteristic colour, with groundnut oil used by those who prefer it.