Pounding Fufu

Togolese cuisine is renowned throughout the region and Togolese chefs are found working in restaurants and hotels all over West Africa.

The most widely eaten food is maize, which is ground into flour and mixed with water to make a porridge called pâtes, (a French word) or akume (the same thing in Ewé). Pâtes is always served with 'sauces'  -- thick stews usually made of vegetables, like okra and ademe and spinach. Sauces are also made with meat, most often smoked fish, but all sorts of other meats are eaten, including fish heads, cow skin and large bush rats, known locally as ‘grasscutters’ or agouti.

Another very famous Togolese food is fufu. The preparation of fufu is a communal ritual; a hard, laborious task done by women. First yams are washed, peeled, cut up and boiled until soft. Then two or three women pound the cooked yams in a pestle with thick sticks until the yam has the consistency of baker’s dough. The noise the fufu pounders make is one of the most instantly recognisable sounds in Togo. Like pâtes, fufu is eaten with sauces. Groundnut, goat and palm nut are popular flavours.

recipes

Akume with Ademe sauce

Ingredients for the Ademe Sauce

• 8 ounces of ademe
• 1 onion
• 1 Magi cube
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 2 ounces of smelly salted fish
• Half a pint of water
• Palm oil (optional)
• Half a pound of beef
• 1 big smoked fish
• A few crabs if you wish

Method of Preparation

1. Pour water into a saucepan and boil.
2. Add the ademe, smelly fish and chopped onion into the boiling water
3. Add the smoked fish, meat, crab and Magi cube
4. Add salt and pepper to taste, and palm oil if you wish.
5. Cook for about 20-25 minutes

Ingredients for the Akume (Maize pâtes)

• 1 pound of maize dough
• 4 ounces of cassava dough
• 1 pint of water
• 1 teaspoon of salt.

Method of Preparation

1. Mix everything together in a saucepan and put onto the stove.
2. Stir gently with a wooden spoon until the mixture becomes firm.
3. A little boiling water can be added if necessary.

Fufu and groundnut soup with chicken

Ingredients for the Groundnut Soup

• 1 chicken
• 1 big onion
• 2 fresh tomatoes
• 1 small can of tomato puree
• 1 Magi cube
• 8 ounces of groundnut paste
• Salt and pepper
• 1 pint of water

Method of Preparation

1. Chop up the onion and place it into a saucepan full of water.
2. Add the groundnut paste and the tomato puree, then cook over a gentle flame until the oil from the groundnut paste starts coming to the top.
3. Put the chicken -- which should be already cut into pieces, fried and seasoned – into the saucepan.
4. The tomatoes, salt and pepper should be mixed in.
5. After stirring gently with a wooden spoon over a gentle flame, the groundnut soup will soon be ready and is guaranteed to taste delicious.

Ingredients for the Fufu

• 1 pound of yams
• Half a pint of water

Method of preparation

1. Boil the yams until they are soft then place inside a wooden mortar.
2. Pound the yam with a wooden pestle until it has the consistency of baker’s dough. While this is being done water should be sprinkled onto the yam at regular intervals. Water also needs to be applied to the end of the pestle in much the same way as a snooker player rubs chalk onto the end of their cue.
3. When the fufu is ready (or you've pounded to the limits of your endurance!), dump about a cup of the mixture into a wet bowl and shake until it forms itself into a smooth ball. Serve on a large platter alongside a soup or stew.

N.B. Instead of chicken, you can use almost any other meat. In Togo you might even use a bush rat, although outside West Africa, you might have problems finding them. Don’t be tempted to use European brown or black rats. They are not an adequate substitute – not even big, fat juicy ones!

Photo by Mike Rimmer