Semovita
Nigeria
Rédacteur en chef
Abuja, Nigeria ·
Cookies sur African Food Network
Nous utilisons des cookies essentiels au fonctionnement du site. Nous aimerions aussi déposer des cookies de mesure d’audience et des cookies publicitaires, uniquement avec votre accord. Vous pouvez choisir séparément pour chacun. Lire notre politique relative aux cookies
Abuja, Nigeria ·
Semovita is one of Nigeria's swallows: the family of smooth, firm starch preparations that are pinched off by hand, rolled between the fingers and used to lift soup from a bowl. The swallow is not a side dish. In Nigerian eating it is the vehicle and the soup is the flavour, and a meal is understood as the pairing of the two. It is made from semolina, the coarse milling of durum wheat, and it belongs to the wheat based end of the swallow spectrum rather than the cassava, yam or maize end. That places it alongside amala, eba, fufu, pounded yam and starch as one option among several, chosen by household preference and by what the soup is. Semovita is smoother and milder than most of the alternatives, which is a large part of its appeal. Its status is worth stating plainly: Semovita is a brand name that has become the general term for the product, in the way a number of household names have. The dish is Nigerian, industrially produced and comparatively recent, and it earned its place at the table on texture rather than on history. It is eaten with ogbono, okra, efo riro, egusi and every other Nigerian soup.
Semovita is a trademarked wheat semolina product manufactured in Nigeria, and belongs to the industrial era of Nigerian food rather than to a pre industrial preparation. It sits within the much older Nigerian tradition of swallow, in which a smooth starch mass is used by hand to lift soup.
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.
Pour about 500ml of water into a clean pot and bring it to the boil over high heat.
Put a cup of semovita in a bowl and add some cool water.
Stir the water and semovita continuously with a wooden spatula until the mixture is smooth.
When the water in the pot boils, reduce the heat to medium and pour in the mixed semovita.
Stir for 1 to 2 minutes, then leave to cook on low heat for about a minute.
Stir again, turning and pressing the mixture, until the texture is neither too hard nor too soft. Turn off the heat.
Serve directly onto a plate, or wrap in cling film.
8 avis
Mixing the semovita with cool water before pouring into the hot pot is the best way oo. If you throw the dry powder straight into boiling water you will just get lumps paa. Worked so smooth for my okra soup today.
My sister, this cool water trick is the absolute truth! When I first moved to Berlin, I was always fighting with lumps until I started doing it this way. Smooth semo with fresh okra soup is unbeatable sha.
Herh 1 cup to 500ml came out way too soft for me oo. I like my swallow very firm so I had to sprinkle more semovita inside while stirring over medium heat, which made it hard work on the arm paa.
Yaw, adding dry semo into hot swallow is proper arm exercise, no be small thing! Next time abeg just start with about 350ml of water to 1 cup. That 500ml ratio is always way too soft if you want firm swallow o.
chale when you reduce the heat and leave it for that last minute, do you cover the pot with a lid? I stirred continuously with my banku taa but I feel like it needs a bit of steam at the end to cook out the raw wheat taste properly.
Yes o, you definitely need to cover it! What I do is sprinkle just a tiny bit of water on top, put the lid on, and leave it on very low heat for about three minutes. That steam is what cooks out that raw wheat taste completely and makes it smooth. If you don't let it steam, it won't settle well sha.
Couldn't get to the West Green Road shop so I bought standard fine semolina from Sainsbury's instead. Ratio of 500ml water was slightly too much for the supermarket brand so it took longer than 15 mins to firm up, but making the cold paste first saved it from being lumpy.
Chale, that cold paste trick is what saved you oo! Herh, these standard supermarket semolinas need less water paa compared to the ones from the African store. I experience the same thing here in Ohio with the store brands. Next time try reducing the water small, it will firm up fast.