If you are in Africa, you are likely to find in your plate a white and compact puree to accompany all dishes: it is the Nshima, pap or foufou
It changes its name according to the country: Papa in Africa, Foufou in Equatorial Africa, Pap in Namibia, Nshima in Zambia. In Ghana, there is also banana foufou, made from plantain bananas or cassava flour.
Generally, the composition remains the same: maize or corn. This very firm purée is cooked in the evening for the morning and in the morning for the evening.
The popular belief is that if you eat it for breakfast, you will have energy for the whole day.
Very simple to prepare, Nshima requires a little more patience than mashed potatoes in a bag: you have to add the semolina in boiling water, stir, stir, let it cook covered, add more semolina and stir, stir, stir… firmly.
No salt, no sauce, no spice, no little things that would give taste, that nenni, the Papa is as immaculate as it is poor in flavour.
Once you have obtained the consistency of a more elastic sandbag, cut the mass with a spoon designed for Gargantua, large white dumplings that occupy 3/4 of the plate and accompany the vegetables and meat.
Africans eat impressive quantities of them with their fingers!
