Recettes

Eba

Eba is garri turned into a swallow, cassava that has already been peeled, grated, fermented, pressed and dry-fried into granules, then reconstituted with boiling water into a smooth, firm dough eaten with soup. It is probably the most-eaten swallow in Nigeria, and its dominance has an entirely practical explanation. Garri keeps for months without refrigeration, needs no cooking to store, is cheap, and turns into a meal in about three minutes with nothing but hot water. In a country where power and cold storage are not guaranteed, that combination is difficult to beat. Pounded yam may carry more prestige, but garri carries the country. Two kinds are in general use. Yellow garri has palm oil worked in during frying, which gives it colour and a richer taste. White garri is fried without it and is plainer and more neutral. Which one a household keeps is largely regional and partly personal. Eba is not eaten on its own. It is a vehicle, pinched off with the fingers, rolled lightly, dipped into soup and swallowed rather than chewed, which is where the English name for the category comes from. Egusi, okra, afang, ogbono and every other Nigerian soup are all served with it. The fermentation that produces garri also removes the cyanogenic compounds present in raw cassava, which is why the processing matters as much as it does.

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EasyNigeria

Recette de Blessing · Africook

Kisra

Kisra, also spelled kissra, is the fermented flatbread of Sudan, South Sudan and Chad, made from sorghum flour left to ferment overnight and spread paper thin on a hot griddle. It is a staple rather than an accompaniment, and in Sudan its production has become a home based industry supplying households that no longer make it themselves. It comes in two forms. Kisra rhaheefa is the thin baked sheet, closely comparable to Ethiopian injera in appearance and in the lactic fermentation that produces it, though made from sorghum rather than teff. Kisra aseeda, also called aceda, is the same base cooked into a thick porridge instead. The two are eaten in different contexts and both are called kisra. The fermentation is what determines quality, and Sudanese cooks judge it by several variables at once: the sorghum genotype, the age and strength of the starter, the temperature and the time. Lactic acid bacteria and yeast do the work, producing the acids and alcohols that give kisra its sour flavour and its aroma. A weak or young starter gives a bland bread, which is why starters are kept going and shared between households.

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45 minMediumSudan

Recette de Nympha · Africook

Chikuanga (Cassava Bread)

Chikuanga, also called kwanga, is fermented cassava pounded to a dense paste, wrapped and cooked into a firm loaf that is sliced and eaten with stews. It is made across Angola and the Congo basin, and the source associates it particularly with northeastern Angola. The long soak at the start is the whole process, and it is not a convenience step. Cassava is soaked for two full days at minimum, during which it ferments, and that fermentation is what makes it safe. Raw cassava contains cyanogenic glycosides which release cyanide, and soaking, fermenting and cooking are the traditional sequence developed over centuries to remove them. This is one of the clearest examples anywhere of a food processing technique that exists for a reason people worked out long before anyone could explain the chemistry. Longer soaking gives a softer, more sourly fermented result. Traditionally the finished paste is wrapped in banana or marantaceae leaves before its final cooking, and the leaves flavour it as it steams. The source's method substitutes cling film and string, which works but loses that. Where leaves are available they are worth using. The source calls Angola the Democratic Republic of Angola, which is not its name, the country is the Republic of Angola. Kwanga is also strongly associated with the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which may be where the confusion arose.

2 hr 45 minHardAngola

Recette de Nympha · Africook

Mealie Pap

Mealie pap is South African maize porridge, made from milled white maize cooked slowly with water into a smooth, thick porridge. It is eaten by everyone and at every age, and it is one of the first solid foods many South African children are given. Sweet or savoury are both standard. With sugar and milk, or golden syrup and butter, it is breakfast. With chopped spring onion and sliced hard egg it becomes something closer to congee. Stiffer versions are eaten with meat and relish as the main starch of a meal, which is where pap en vleis comes from. It has close relatives across the continent, made from the same maize by the same method: ugali in Kenya and Tanzania, sadza in Zimbabwe, nsima in Malawi. Maize itself is not indigenous to Africa. It was brought from South America by the Portuguese and became the dominant staple across much of the continent within a few centuries. Mealie meal comes coarse or fine depending on use, and it is not as fine as cornflour, which is a different product and will not make pap.

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1 hrEasySouth Africa

Recette de Nympha · Africook