No Corn Starch Rice Cakes (Ablo)
Aperçu
Ablo, also written abolo, is a steamed rice cake with a light, springy crumb, eaten across the coastal stretch of West Africa where Togo, Benin, Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire meet. It is white, faintly sweet, faintly sour, and built to be torn and dipped. Its texture is the result of fermentation rather than of any raising agent alone. Rice is soaked, ground and left to rise, and the sourness that develops in that time is the difference between an ablo and a plain steamed dumpling. In Benin the cakes are steamed wrapped in banana leaf bundles, which leaves a green, faintly grassy note that a metal mould cannot give. Ablo occupies the position that bread occupies elsewhere: it is the mild thing on the plate that the sauce is for. It is eaten with thick stews and grilled fish, and it belongs equally to a party table and a home meal. In a food culture where most starches are pounded or stirred, a steamed and leavened cake is a distinct approach, and one that Togolese, Beninese, Ghanaian and Ivorian cooks share across their borders.
Note de Patrimoine AFN
Ablo belongs to the coastal belt shared by Togo, Benin, Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire, where it is documented as a steamed leavened rice cake wrapped in banana leaf. Its earliest documented date is uncertain.
Ingrédients
Les mentions alimentaires sont fournies par les contributeurs à titre indicatif. Elles ne sont pas vérifiées par AFN et dépendent des produits que vous achetez. En cas d’allergie grave, vérifiez vous-même chaque ingrédient. Cuisine, allergies et votre propre jugement
Préparation
- 1
Soak the rice overnight.
- 2
The next day, drain the water and blend the rice with 1 cup of water.
- 3
Boil 1 cup of water with one third of the blended rice mixture and cook for 3 minutes.
- 4
Combine the cooked mixture with the remaining blended rice, the sugar and the yeast, adding water if needed. Leave in a warm place for 30 minutes.
- 5
While the mixture rises, prepare the moulds.
- 6
Add the baking powder and salt, and whisk the batter until just smooth.
- 7
Fill each mould three quarters full and leave to rise in the mould for 30 minutes.
- 8
Bring a steamer of water to a rolling boil.
- 9
Working in batches, place the moulds in the steamer and steam for 25 minutes, until the ablo has risen and is firm to the touch.
- 10
Turn out of the moulds and serve warm or at room temperature.
Notes de l’Africook
- Use whole rice blended to a batter rather than rice flour. Rice flour gives a slightly sticky cake with a yellow tint instead of the white, springy crumb the dish is known for.
- Let the cooked rice mixture cool completely before the yeast goes in. Heat kills yeast, and a batter that does not rise cannot be rescued.
- If the yeast has not gone frothy within 10 minutes of being mixed, it is dead. Start again rather than proceeding and hoping.
- Fill the steamer three quarters full and let it run at a hard boil for at least 10 minutes before the first batch goes in. A steamer that loses its head mid batch gives dense cakes.
- Banana leaf, as used in Benin, is worth the effort where you can get it. It scents the cake in a way no mould does.
Questions fréquentes
Why does my ablo come out yellow and sticky instead of white and springy?
You almost certainly used rice flour rather than whole soaked rice. Flour milled dry behaves differently from rice ground wet after soaking, and it yields a denser, stickier crumb with a yellow cast. Soak, drain, and blend the whole grains with water as the method describes.
How long does ablo batter need to ferment?
The version here uses a short 30 minute rise with yeast plus a second 30 minute rise in the mould, which produces a mild sourness. The longer traditional process runs across three to four days from the first rice soaking, and the flavour is deeper for it. Most of that time is inactive waiting rather than work.
Can I use baking powder instead of yeast?
There are baking powder versions, and they will give you a risen cake. What they will not give you is the fermented flavour, which is a large part of why ablo tastes the way it does. This recipe uses both: the yeast for flavour and the baking powder for lift. If you use baking powder alone, expect a plainer, sweeter cake.
What is ablo eaten with?
Thick stews and grilled or fried fish, most commonly. It plays the role bread plays elsewhere on the plate, mild and slightly sweet against something heavily seasoned. It is also eaten on its own as a snack, and it holds well at room temperature, which is why it appears at parties.
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How do I get ablo to be properly fluffy?
The batter needs a real ferment and a gentle steam. Give it several hours somewhere warm until it is visibly bubbling and smells slightly sour, which is the rise doing its work. Then steam it over water that is simmering rather than boiling hard, and leave the lid on. A rushed ferment gives you something flat and a bit dense however well you steam it.
The 30 minutes rising time was not enough in my kitchen during harmattan o, I had to leave it for almost an hour before it foamed up. But boiling that one third of the blended rice first is the real secret for the bouncy texture. Added 6 tablespoons of sugar because we like it sweet with hot pepper sauce. E sweet sha.
chale back home my grandmother used small tin cans or banana leaves, but here in Croydon I just used silicone muffin cups inside a steam basket. The overnight soak is crucial paa, if the blended rice is still gritty the ablo won't be smooth. Tastes just like the ones from the Aflao border oo.