West Africa – FuFu

by Anaa Rajpoot

FuFu is a very unique dough that is made with cassava. Some people can’t think that cassava is useful for making dough but it is true. There are two countries from which we can find cassava easily.

• West Africa
• Caribbean

FuFu is made in different countries by adding different ingredients according to the countries like Cuban, Ghananian, Liberia, etc are used to make this dish with their different ingredients and make different recipe of FUFU. Cassava is a very useful ingredient to use in your dishes, the toughest thing about removing its outer part or peal it but you can also boil it and I think so this is very easy to make.

You can enjoy FUFU with any type of sauce it is up to you that which type of sauce you want but you can also have it individually. Fufu is not the only important food in Burkina Faso. Other fields such as cassava, corn, or peeled bananas can also be used. Fufu is usually served with tandoori soup, walnut soup, or other plain soup. Fufu is eaten with fingers and small balls dipped in soup or added to the sauce.

AKPU

Nigerians made AKPU by adding fermented cassava to their dishes. Akpu totally depends upon the fermented cassava.

AFRICAN FUFU

In the African tradition, Fufu acts as a family in the form of a big toe. You can knead the dough with each guest’s hands and drips the soup or soup with the juice. So out of habit, you can use clean hands to eat fufu because it is real food. You take a piece of flour the size of a spoon and roll it in a ball in your hand, then press the ball with your fingers and grab the fry or sauce and enjoy the whole piece.

IN NIGERIA

In Nigeria, Akpu plays the same as important role as Fufu. They cannot serve fufu without akpu. They used fermented cassava in their dish.

IN TIWI

In tiwi, Fufu name meaning is “MASH AND MIX”, they boiled the cassava and then mash it and mix it with ingredients and then eat this. They eat this with different food soups like

• nkwan
• nkrakra nkwan
• palm nut soup
• peanut butter soup
• abunabun soup

IN COTE D’LVOIRE

They write fufu as “FOUTOU”. They made it sweeter by smashing sweet bananas. Their staple foods are

• yam
• cassava
• banana
• taro

CARIBBEAN FUFU

In the Caribbean, Fufu is almost similar to African Fufu, method of cooking is almost the same but they used some kind of different ingredient in it according to their special ingrdients.

This region includes JAMAICA, CUBA, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC, HAITI, PEURTO RICO, etc.

IN HAITI

In Haiti, this dish is served in the breakfast which is named TONM TONM and also spelled Fufu as FOO FOO. They made foo foo with yams and plantain. The special thing about the serving of foo foo in Haiti is that it is served in the stew of okra soup. It is actually related to the city of JEREMIE who named this dish as TONM TONM.

IN ANTIGUA

Fufu plays a very important role in the region of ANTIGUA because they served this dish as the National dish of Antigua. They called this dish as

• Fungi
• Fungee

There are two main ingredients of this dish in Antigua is OKRA and CORNMEAL.

IN BARBADOS

In Barbados, fufu is almost similar to fufu of Antigua, they also considered it as a part of the NATIONAL dish of BARBADOS. They called fufu “Cou Cou“. The special thing is they also used Cornmeal in fufu but not Okra.

ALTERNATIVE NAMES

There are different names of FuFu in different countries like

• IN CAMERRON: couscous, couscous de manioc
• IN ANGOLA: funge, fúngi
• IN BENIN: santana, foufou
• IN CONGO-KINSHASA: fufú, moteke, luku
• IN CONGO-BRAZZAVILLE: fufú, moteke, luku
• IN IVORY COAST: foutou, foufou
• IN LIBERIA: fufu
• IN NIGERIA: fufu, akpụ, ụtara, loi-loi, swallow, Mr White
• IN TOGGO: foufou
• IN SIERRIA: fufú
• IN GABON: foufou
• IN GHANA: fufu, fufuo, sakɔro
• IN GUINEA: foufou

CASSAVA FOUND IN

• Sierra Leone
• Guinea
• Liberia
• Cote D’Ivoire
• Benin
• Togo
• Puerto Rico
• Nigeria
• Cameroon
• Angola
• Gabon
• Caribbean
• African
• Ghana
• Jamaica

RECIPE

INGREDIENTS

• cassava
• salt
• black pepper
• butter

METHOD

• Peel of the skin of cassava after boiling it so it can be soft and easily extracted.
• Cut the peices of cassava
• Mash them and add pepper, salt and butter in it.
• knead it.
• make balls of it.