Join professor and author Ozoz Sokoh for a deep dive into the details and nuances of Nigerian food and culture, through the lens of cassava/manioc/yuca, exploring classic and contemporary recipes found in her debut cookbook, Chop Chop: Cooking the Food of Nigeria
Cassava and cassava products are essential to life and daily living for the majority of Nigerians across all spheres of society, despite the fact that cassava is a fairly recent import to Nigeria (and Africa in general).
Today, a lot of Nigerian cuisine is based on this tuber in different forms, from snacks of boiled cassava with coconut – a popular street food - to kpokpogari – coarse, hard biscuits made from leftover cassava fibre from which all the starch has been pressed out. Also, soaked garri – a fine to coarse meal (think cornmeal texture) enjoyed as cereal, with water or milk, and sides like eba, a hot sticky dough similar to mashed potatoes but starchier and served with soups and stews. There are salads of abacha, made from rehydrated, shredded cassava and desserts of mingau, made with tapioca granules and coconut milk.
Guests will experience Nigerian cuisine through cassava in different forms, tasting, drinking, and learning about the history and use in Nigeria today, as well as the origins, and future possibilities of this incredible and life-sustaining crop.
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Garri Water
A drinkable version of a “soaked” garri snack, made with toasted cassava meal, on ice
Lemongrass Chicken & Pepper Soup with Tapioca
Fragrant spiced broth with “savory” boba. Pepper soup is a spiced broth that isn’t always “peppery”. In Nigeria, some “spicy” and “chili hot” descriptions occupy the same space, as “pepper”, hence pepper soup. Worry not, this will be warm and comforting not mouth-numbing
Eba and Efo Riro
A soft dough made from granulated cassava meal, typically shaped into balls or ovals. The perfect accompaniment to hearty soups, in this case Efo Riro, a sweet red pepper and spinach mix, with mushrooms
Cassava & Coconut Salad
A traditional pairing of these two staple foods combining natural sweetness with earthiness
Mingau
A spiced, creamy dessert of coconut milk and tapioca, with toppings
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Ozoz Sokoh is a professor of Food and Tourism Studies at Centennial College whose work documents and celebrates Nigerian and West African cuisine, most recently in her debut cookbook, Chop Chop: Cooking the Food of Nigeria. She is particularly fascinated by all the ways we’re similar - dishes, drinks, material culture, techniques, and more - across geographies, cultures, and histories, in spite of our apparent differences.
https://ozozsokoh.com | @kitchenbutterfly
Signed copies of Ozoz's book will be available for purchase at the event.
