Fufu from Ghana

Recipe Credit: archived ICA website

The following recipe, from Ghana, is just one example of fufu.

Ingredients:
1 pound or 450 grams of cassava, manioc or yams

Cut the cassava, manioc or yams into cubes. Ring a large pot of water to the boil, adding some salt. Put in the cut-up tubers and let cook for about 45 minutes or until they are soft. *Yams, or sweet potatoes will need less time to cook.* A good test for softness is to try and break up the tubers with a spoon against the inside of the pot. If they break up with a little effort that’s soft enough.

Drain the water out of the pot and leave the ingredients to cool. After it’s cooled a bit put it in a bowl for mashing. Alternatively, you can use a food processor. Mash or process until you obtain a doughy consistency.

With wet hands or a wet spoon, shape the dough into small dumpling-balls. Drop the balls into another dish which is cooking (such as a soup or a stew) and let cook for the last 10 minutes to make sure they are heated through. This may work best with a spicy stew or soup, as the dumplings will subdue some of the fire of eating it, and it will give the dumplings more flavour.

This should make enough dumplings to serve four people with a meal.

The basis of this recipe comes from The New Internationalist FOOD Book, published by New Internationalist Publications Ltd. in 1990. Author – Troth Wells