Authentic African Dishes.

A mound of Foofoo and Okra Soup.

Courtesy: Samura Kargbo / Freetown, Sierra Leone (All Rights Reserved)

Above is a very popular dish of Foofoo and Okra Sauce. It is a dish served primarily on Saturdays in Sierra Leone, West Africa around the peninsula coast and especially cherished by Creoles and others in and around Freetown, the capital.

Foofoo

The starchy mound shown on the plate above is made from finely grated cassava tubers that are tied up and fermented in jute sacks for about a week or two. This allows most of the liquid starch and sugars to drain from the grated cassava until a smooth fluffy white mass remains. Water and sometimes a little lime juice is added to the residue after fermentation, to make a thick pappy substrate which is filtered over a mesh sifter to remove large particles. It is this substrate that is put in a hot cast iron or aluminum pot and cooked on moderate heat over a fire. In West Africa, many countries other than Sierra Leone enjoy Foofoo dishes. It’s cooked over a stone-tripod fire using dried firewood as fuel. As it cooks Foofoo starts to form a lumpy mass. You know its fully cooked when no traces of white substrate remain, its color changes to a light yellow or off white and when it barely sticks to the sides and bottom of the pot. Some cooks or families add a little lime juice and salt during sifting or cooking Foofoo. The lime adds a slight tangy but very palatable flavor, and salt neutralizes any sweetness from the cassava’s sugar remaining. It is served adding a sprinkling of water to release from the pot and usually shaped into a mound onto a plate.

Okra Sauce.

West African Okra sauce is akin to the drawy Southern or New Orleans Gumbo, from which the latter is derived and was consumed by enslaved Africans and even their descendants to this day. It is made from finely chopped young Okra that are steamed or sauteed in a soup of fish, chicken, crustaceans (crabs or crawfish) and game meat or beef. Any combo of these or single meats would do. Hot peppers or chilis, onions and eggplants or “jakato”, salt and other seasoning is added in Sierra Leone. These ingredients add minerals and vitamins and give extra bulk to the dish. In the picture above, two pieces of chicken legs are visible while some of the fresh fish may have disintegrated in the sauce adding umami flavor.

Service

The Foofoo mound is usually served to the side in a plate, with the Okra soup beside it. It is usually eaten with the fingers where a scoop of Foofoo is dug into the soup and lifted with the tip of the fingers into the mouth. The drawy soup stops the starchy Foofoo sticking to the palate and helps it flow deliciously down. Foofoo is not chewed, and it is frowned upon in social circles to do so. Novice Foofoo connoisseurs are easily identified, when they chew their Foofoo.

Similar dishes are pounded yam: made from cooked white yam that is pounded smooth and eaten with similar sauces or Garri Foofoo: made in similar way like cassava Foofoo, but the fluffy substrate is further dried and patched in a hot pan over a fire, to make Garri. The Garri is then soaked or cooked in hot or boiling water depending on the consistency preferred.

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