Last weekend, I had a puff-puff party. It was the best puff-puff party I’d ever had. Been to.
The only one too :).
Anchored by the fact that my puff-puff game had improved considerably in a week of making it three times, and a comment J, my daughter made about said fried dough, I gathered a veritable force of ten plus ladies to feast.
I love the idea of exploring one ingredient or dish, be it Agbalumo or Mango, and in this case puff-puff. And what better way to discover borders and combinations than celebrating the very thing.
On the subject of fried dough, this wasn’t one where I wanted to journey alone. I needed palates and eyes and mouths to tell me the faves.
I wanted to go sweet and savoury and so I prepared a number of variations on the theme. We had sweet plain puff-puff, and puff-puff flavoured with coconut milk and lemongrass extract. We had some of dried fruit soaked in liqueur, much like olieballen. We had sweetcorn, chili and basil puff-puff.
And the sides, oh boy, the sides were the most awesome bits:
Suya from Glover Court and Port Harcourt
Suya spice combined with sugar for a sweet and pepper dip
Cinnamon sugar and what else?
Ehm, not sure.
The party began about 3pm.
The dough for the puff-puff? Made about 12.30pm. In an hour, they’d risen good and proper in the (not-lit) oven and I began the task of frying.
One of the challenges of keeping puff-puff from browning uniformly is the buoyancy of the puff-puff. There is a preferential desire for one side to brown. The key to overcoming? Filling the pan full of puff-puff so they’re boxed in with little room to move and stay turned when you flip.
I fried the plain and dried fruit batches first and put in a cooler with the lid ajar, so they stayed warm but didn’t get wet.
When the guests arrived, and while they feasted on plantain chips and my beloved scent leaf dip, I fried up the others – coconut milk & lemongrass; and the sweetcorn.
We had some stuffed with mango and passionfruit sauce. Oh Lawd…and Zobo cordial and Zobo pepper sauce.
And then we ate, and ate and ate and talked and laughed and generally gisted.
It was a lovely way to spend a Sunday. With gorgeous-hearted women…
…and children.
What would you serve at your puff-puff party?
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