Fufu (or fufuo, foofoo, foufou ) is a pounded meal found in West African cuisine.
Although the original ingredients for fufu are boiled cassava, Cooking banana, and cocoyam, it is also made in different ways in other West African countries. In Ghana, Ivory Coast, and Liberia, they use the method of separately mixing and pounding equal portions of boiled cassava with green plantain or cocoyam, or by mixing cassava/plantains or cocoyam flour with water and stirring it on a stove. Its thickness is then adjusted to personal preference, and it is eaten with broth-like soups. In Nigeria, the meal is commonly known as akpu, and is popular among the Igbo people of Nigeria. It is made solely from fermented cassava, giving it its unique thickness compared to that found in other West African countries. It is eaten with a variety of soups such as Egusi soup, Onugbu soup, vegetables, and lots of beef and fish.
Names
-
Angola: funge, fúngi
-
Benin: santana, foufou
-
Burkina Faso: tô
-
Cameroon: couscous, couscous de manioc
-
Central African Republic: foufou
-
Congo-Kinshasa and Congo-Brazzaville: fufú, moteke, fufú, luku , bidia
-
Gabon: foufou
-
Ghana: fufu, fufuo, sakɔro
-
Haiti: tomtom
-
Ivory Coast: foutou, foufou
-
Liberia: fufu
-
Mozambique: sadja, sadza, xima
-
Nigeria: fufu, santana, akpụ, ụtara, loi-loi, swallow, tuk rogo
-
Sierra Leone: foofoo, foofoo
-
Togo: foufou
In Africa
Before the Portuguese traders introduced
cassava to
Africa from Brazil in the 16th century, fufu was mainly made from cocoyam, plantain, and yams.
The traditional method of eating fufu is to pinch some of the fufu off in one's right-hand fingers and form it into an easily ingested round ball. The ball is then dipped in the soup before being eaten.
Angola
In
Angola, fufu is served as part of the national dish but is called fungi/fungee and is made using
cornmeal and
okra.
In Cote d'Ivoire
In
Ivory Coast, the word
foutou is also used. Ivorian
foufou is specifically mashed sweet plantains, whereas
foutou is a stronger, heavier paste made of various staple foods such as yam,
cassava,
Cooking banana,
taro or a mix of any of those.
In Cameroon
In the French-speaking regions of
Cameroon, it is called "
couscous" (not to be confused with the North African dish
couscous).
[DeLancey, Mark W., and Mark Dike DeLancey (2000). Historical Dictionary of the Republic of Cameroon, 3rd ed. Lanham, Maryland: The Scarecrow Press, p. 134.]
In Ghana
Although people from Eastern Africa and Southern Africa use the term
fufu (or
fufuo) for their type of corn or maize dough dish called
ugali or
nshima, in Ghana, these are not the same. Rather,
ugali or
nshima can be found in Ghana, where it is called
akple,
nsihoo (white
etsew without the corn bran), or
tuo zaafi, which are made from unfermented corn flour, unlike the other fermented corn dough foods such as
etsew,
dokuno (
kenkey),
banku,
fonfom, among others in Ghanaian cuisine.
It is believed to originate in what is now modern-day
Ghana,
by the
Ashanti people, the
Akuapem people, the
Akyem, the
Bono people, and the
Fante people people of the
Akan people ethnic group of Ghana and now generally accepted across the country.
According to historian Miller, "the word Fufu literally means white in Twi."
and is likely derived from the whitish colour of the cassava component in Ghanaian fufu. In Ghana, it is made out of pieces of boiled
cassava and/or other tubers such as
Cooking banana or
cocoyam. It is mostly pounded together in a locally made wooden mortar (woduro) using a wooden
pestle (woma). In between blows from the pestle, the mixture is turned by hand, and water is gradually added until it becomes a soft, sticky dough. The
mixture is then formed into a rounded slab and served. With the invention of the
fufu machine, preparation has become much less labour-intensive. The resulting food is eaten with liquid soups (nkwan) such as light soup (nkrakra nkwan),
abenkwan (palm nut soup),
nkatenkwan (peanut butter soup), and abunubunu soup. Today, it also features in
Beninese cuisine, Cameroonian cuisine,
Guinean cuisine, Congolese cuisine,
Nigerian cuisine,
and
Togolese cuisine, where it is eaten with hot pepper soup,
okra, or other kinds of stew. Fufu was a major cuisine of the
Ashanti Empire.
In Ghana, fufu, also known as fufuo, is white and sticky, if plantain is not mixed with the cassava when pounding.
In Nigeria
In
Nigeria,
fufu or
akpu is a popular food made from fresh or fermented
cassava. The Nigerian version of Fufu differs from that of Ghana's; however, it remains a staple food in both countries.
In Nigeria, cassava-based fufu, commonly referred to as akpu, originated primarily among the Igbo people of southeastern Nigeria and various ethnic groups in the South-South region. Its preparation and consumption are deeply embedded in the cultural and culinary practices of these communities. However, over time, fufu has been adopted by numerous other Nigerian ethnic groups, each incorporating it into their diets with localized variations in preparation and accompanying soups. The preparation of Yoruba fufu differs slightly from other ethnic groups. It is made from fermented cassava of which the soft pieces are sieved. The starchy remains are boiled and stirred with a wooden rod until it turns into dough.
Akpu, properly punctuated as
akpụ in Igbo, is the Igbo word for cassava. Requiring several days to make, akpu is often eaten with
egusi soup. Akpu is traditionally made by peeling and washing raw cassava until it is white. The cassava is soaked in water for 3–4 days to
ferment and become soft.
It is then filtered with a porous
calabash or sieve. Excess water is quickly drained by pouring the wet paste into a sack, upon which is placed a heavy and flat item (e.g., a plank and brick). The paste is then pounded and molded into large balls and simmered for 30–60 seconds, after which it is thoroughly pounded to remove lumps, molded again into smaller balls, boiled for 15–20 minutes, and then pounded until smooth.
It is popular throughout Nigeria, particularly in the South-East and South-South.
In the Caribbean
In
Caribbean nations with substantial populations of West African origin (such as
Cuba,
Jamaica, the Dominican Republic,
Haiti and
Puerto Rico),
Cooking banana, cassava or yams are mashed with other ingredients.
Cuba
In
Cuba, the dish retains its original African stem name, termed simply as
fufú or with added descriptive extensions like
fufú de plátano or
fufú de plátano pintón.
Dominican Republic
In the Dominican Republic, a beloved dish, mangú, is very similar to
fufú. Mangú is made from mashed, boiled green plantains, typically topped with sautéed red onions cooked in vinegar.
Haiti
In
Haiti, it is called
tonm tonm and
foofoo. It is mostly made of
breadfruit but can be made of plantain or yams and is usually served with an
okra based stew or soup. It is primarily consumed in the southernmost regions of Haiti namely the Grand'Anse and Sud departments. The city of Jérémie is regarded as the tonmtonm capital of Haiti.
Puerto Rican
Puerto Rican
mofongo, in keeping with the creolized cuisine traditions of the Caribbean, tends toward a
fufú of much higher density and robust seasoning. While keeping a conspicuous African character, mofongo has borrowed from the island's
Hispanic culinary tradition, to create a dish made of fried green and yellow plantains, cassava or
breadfruit. Unlike the mushier Caribbean and West African
fufús, mofongo is generally firmer and crustier. To prepare mofongo, green plantains are deep-fried once unlike twice fried
tostones. Next, they are mashed in a 'pilon' (mortar) with chopped garlic, salt, black pepper and olive oil. The resulting mash is then pressed and rounded into a hollowed crusty orb. Meat, traditionally
chicharrón, is then stuffed into the chunky ball of fried green plantains. Some recipes call for a meat or vegetable
salsa criolla" (related to American Creole sauce) poured atop the hot sphere. In the trendier "mofongo relleno", typical of western Puerto Rico, seafood is all over, inside and outside. Traditional mofongo, as previously cited, comes seasoned and stuffed with meat and bathed in a chicken broth soup.
[Food and Identity in the Caribbean, Hanna Garth, Ed. 2013 Bloomsbury Press.] Because of its elaborate process of preparation and its sundry ingredients, poet and blogger Arose N Daghetto called the mofongo a type of "fufú paella" and branded it as "the big daddy of fufús".
Although mofongo is associated with being fried, boiled and roasting plantain mofongo predate fried mofongo and is still excited but a rare find in Puerto Rico. A dish called
funche made with taro, green and yellow plantains boiled and mashed with butter, garlic, and pork fat was once popular in Puerto Rico. Once mashed it was formed into balls and eaten with broth made from sesame seeds. Funche is written in early Puerto Rican cookbooks around the 1800s, but can probably be traced back to African slaves on the island. Funche today in Puerto Rico is cornmeal cooked in coconut milk and milk.
Anglo-Caribbean
The vegetable or fufú sauce in the
Anglo-Caribbean is not fried first.
Cooking banana is not used as much, as it is used in so many dishes. Fufu is usually part of, or added to, a soupy sauce or on the side with a soupy dish. Similarly to Angola,
Barbados serves it as part of the national dish and is called
cou-cou and uses cornmeal or, less commonly, split peas, green bananas, or
breadfruit instead, like several other English Caribbean islands.
Nutrition
100
Gram dry fufu flour (made from cocoyam) contains 2 g of protein, 0.1 g of fat and 84 g of carbohydrates, and 267 calories.
One serving (240g) of cooked fufu contains 3.6 g of protein, 7.2 g of fat and 81 g of carbohydrates, and 398 calories.
It is low in cholesterol and rich in potassium, and it is commonly prescribed by doctors for people who have a Hypokalemia.
== Gallery ==
See also
Bibliography
External links
-
Microwavable instant fufu.
