This is a guest post by Fiyin of @curiousconeater I didn’t like garri growing up and even now – as I type this -, I still don’t like it much. I have, however had moments of joy with it in my short life. See, my dad was an avid soaker of garri, soaking some everyday...
It is difficult to think of cassava as a recent import to Nigeria (and Africa) because much of its cuisine today is based on the tuber in different forms. From snacks of boiled cassava with coconut – popular street food; kpokpogari – coarse, hard biscuits of cassava fibre from which all the starch has been...
Because people will say they want to tell them and use the opportunity to perpetuate a narrative of poverty rather than one of unity, of sameness, of similarities in spite of the glaring differences. One reason why Anthony Bourdain will be missed. Terribly. For the work he did to expand our thinking and our culinary...
All I can think of in this weather is my bed. Sleeping in it. Morning, noon and night. Waking up to cuddles and soup. Forget pots of tea and freshly-baked cookies. Love and soup are errthang. Err single thang. Sigh. There’s something about rainy season that brings out the romantic in me. But I’m going...
I love making hash – great for combining starches, meat, vegetables and sauce, all in one pan. I employed my cassava chunks in this recipes, along with suya of tripe – shaki to Nigerians. I got the ‘book’ shaki, known as Bible. Manifold. Onigbawe, in Yoruba. For the ‘pages’ it has. I love how expressive...
I’ve eaten cassava products all my life but I’d never tasted the cooked/ boiled tuber till last weekend. It is an interesting combination of starchy and chewy and a taste that isn’t as distinctive as I expected. What it looks like Think long tubers, about 20 – 30cm with tough brown skins bearing some resemblance...
The truth is when I happen upon a new ingredient, I like to explore as much as I can. So I’ve done the soup and the salad and this time, it’s the deep-fried chips. I figured that would work better than roasted but that’ll be explored as well. Here, I deep-fried the chips for a...
With my huge batch of cooked cassava chips, I wondered what else I could do. I considered making Aipim, a traditional Brazilian cake – dense, moist and apparently delicious. We, after all share histories of food and more with them. However, I wasn’t sure my cassava was of the right texture, as it was in...
My obsession with re-imagining Nigerian cuisine often begins with street food. The end? Dishes with de- and re-constructed ingredients, new techniques applied to familiar flavours and more. Last August, I discovered cooked cassava shreds/ chips, also called Bobozi, Mbrakasi in the east and south of Nigeria. This popular street snack is sold with chunks of fresh coconut. This version sold...