Hello good cooks,

am having a problem with the recipe of dried akidi or fio-fio and the procedure for cooking it...My mom never cooks it but I ate it at a friend's place and liked it.I tried cooking it on tuesday and ended up with a bad broth...I cooked the akidi for close to 3hrs yet it couldn't get soft...I added potash(akanwu) but that worsened it...Pls help a lady out with the recipe and method...Our Enugu friends help me oooo...That food nah die oo

HOW MUCH ARE YOU GOING TO PAY ME I TEACH YOU FROM THE BEGINNING TO END... I WILL ALSO TECH YOU HOW TO DO SHARWAMA,CAT FISH,BARBECUE CHICKEN AND SO ON CONTACT ME benjaminscott67@yahoomail.com

HOW MUCH ARE YOU GOING TO PAY ME I TEACH YOU FROM THE BEGINNING TO END... I WILL ALSO TECH YOU HOW TO DO SHARWAMA,CAT FISH,BARBECUE CHICKEN AND SO ON CONTACT ME benjaminscott67@yahoomail.com 08122296163

ugo1990: HOW MUCH ARE YOU GOING TO PAY ME I TEACH YOU FROM THE BEGINNING TO END... I WILL ALSO TECH YOU HOW TO DO SHARWAMA,CAT FISH,BARBECUE CHICKEN AND SO ON CONTACT ME benjaminscott67@yahoomail.com 08122296163

Pay you?You can't be serious.If you want to help,just drop it here.

whizbrain: Hello good cooks,

am having a problem with the recipe of dried akidi or fio-fio and the procedure for cooking it...My mom never cooks it but I ate it at a friend's place and liked it.I tried cooking it on tuesday and ended up with a bad broth...I cooked the akidi for close to 3hrs yet it couldn't get soft...I added potash(akanwu) but that worsened it...Pls help a lady out with the recipe and method...Our Enugu friends help me oooo...That food nah die oo

Your best help if you will not use firewood is a pressure pot
I will use a measure of 6 cigarette cups, cos I grew up with that measure....still use it

Put the fio fio in a regular pot first, with water...cook to boiling then you throw away the water
This removes preservatives and pesticides

Then put in a pressure pot, and water...and bring to boil..when you hear the first pressure noise, you start timing. Fiofio cooks okay at 45 to 60 minutes from the time of the first hissing sound..no more or it becomes a paste, lol

When you start the pressure cooking, you also cut yam into dices and boil, so that by the time the fio fio is cooked the yam is ready too

So you have your cooked fiofio and yam now. Note that yam may be substituted with achicha(precooked and dried cococam grounds) or abacha.

The secret to great fiofio is palm oil, pepper and onions....
There is a saying in my village...oye na eli akidi/agbugbu(fiofio), na eli manu(mmanu)....the person who eats them, eats palm oil

Okay...you slice onions....to fill a regular Naija soup plate, like 2 large onions...grind fresh pepper...if you like pepper think Yoruba and know that more is better here...

Put 3/4 of your oil in a pan, add your pepper and onions, and lightly fry...add salt...the oil should not get bleached. You also want the onions as near raw as possible. You should have a sizzling stew of reddish onions and pepper now

You have the fiofio...add the cubed yam to it. Pour the oil stew into the pot with the food...stir, you add the rest of your oil if you feel it is too bleached......then stir witha wooden spoon to avoid more mashing...taste for salt and pepper..you may add more of these to your taste
Okay we should not use salt without cooking yeah yeah bla bla...a little wont hurt joor

I avoid using raw oil cos it alters the taste a bit
I use half of my oil to fry onions and pepper...then when I remove from the fire I add the rest of the palm oil...this way it is never too bleached

You can cut anara leaves, get the tiny garden eggs or large garden egg (sliced)....garden egg is anara to me....as garnish....and to balance the meal more

Whew!!!
Typing this makes me realise you guys are trying....I am a good cook, cos I had to learn as a first child many years ago but I hardly ever cook, not my hobby at all
I just felt like going out of my comfort zone by posting this...lol

But trust me....this is the way to make fio fio...hundred percent...by your second try you will become even more perfect
I grew up eating, then cooking fio fio...without pressure pot ooo (shudders at all the kerosene, and akanwu/potash that we used...plus the hours spent cooking...thank God for pressure pots)....lol

Note...I assume you are using a gas cooker...when I wrote the timing
You know what?....use 60 minutes.....if too soft, next time come down low a bit

If you understood my crack headed post, you have awesome fiofio on your hands...
...never, ever use crayfish....or anything apart from onions, pepper, salt and maybe maggi...true story

I wont edit...please understand ...I am spent

whizbrain: Hello good cooks,

am having a problem with the recipe of dried akidi or fio-fio and the procedure for cooking it...My mom never cooks it but I ate it at a friend's place and liked it.I tried cooking it on tuesday and ended up with a bad broth...I cooked the akidi for close to 3hrs yet it couldn't get soft...I added potash(akanwu) but that worsened it...Pls help a lady out with the recipe and method...Our Enugu friends help me oooo...That food nah die oo

I forgot something....
At the point where you first put fiofio and water in the pressure pot...add your salt
This makes the salt permeate well inside the fiofio

It is better to have more water than less in the pressure...cos if the water dries out...the fiofio spoils and burns to a dry, bad food
You can drain out the excess water...afterwards
You actually turn the fiofio into a drain....before adding oil stew...it is not a porridge...drain

If you have time...cook the yam after the fiofio is done...so you can use the drained out water (yeah I know it is brown) to cook the yam
The fiofio flavour and the salt gets into the yam...this is better

You can also add ukpaka/akpaka in my dialect to the garden egg and garnish...a little fried onions and pepper can be used to mix the ukpaka...then you add the anara

This is the same way to cook akidi

Enjoy
Ciao.....this makes me realise how much of a drag cooking is for me
(Hides)

milychocs:


I forgot something....
At the point where you first put fiofio and water in the pressure pot...add your salt
This makes the salt permeate well inside the fiofio

It is better to have more water than less in the pressure...cos if the water dries out...the fiofio spoils and burns to a dry, bad food
You can drain out the excess water...afterwards
You actually turn the fiofio into a drain....before adding oil stew...it is not a porridge...drain

If you have time...cook the yam after the fiofio is done...so you can use the drained out water (yeah I know it is brown) to cook the yam
The fiofio flavour and the salt gets into the yam...this is better

You can also add ukpaka/akpaka in my dialect to the garden egg and garnish...a little fried onions and pepper can be used to mix the ukpaka...then you add the anara

This is the same way to cook akidi

Enjoy
Ciao.....this makes me realise how much of a drag cooking is for me
(Hides)

Wow...Thanks for teaching me.But am using a kerosene stove ooooo.Anyway will try once more

@milychocs, thanks for the recipe, l cooked it though without yam as l no see yam here in Nairobi, Kenya whey l dey. Fiofio is sold here.

Pavore9: @milychocs, thanks for the recipe, l cooked it though without yam as l no see yam here in Nairobi, Kenya whey l dey. Fiofio is sold here.

You are welcome
Next time....why dont you use potatoes for yam?
It may rock

I would soo love to visit E. Africa, definitely on my wish list....I hope you are having a good time there
Cheers

milychocs:


You are welcome
Next time....why dont you use potatoes for yam?
It may rock

I would soo love to visit E. Africa, definitely on my wish list....I hope you are having a good time there
Cheers

Will try it.

Pavore9: @milychocs, thanks for the recipe, l cooked it though without yam as l no see yam here in Nairobi, Kenya whey l dey. Fiofio is sold here.

U aint serious Pavore, no yams in Nairobi?
You told me u stay in Buruburu right? Go to the Buruburu shopping centre, and opposite those shopping malls, accross the road, there is that market called Mutidwa.
Apart from cheap clothes and jewelry, they also sell a wide range of groceries, some of which i hav no idea what they are called, and u will find lots of yams at very good price.

(I hope ur Nigerian accent wont give u away though, they tend to overchare foreigners in such markets).
You can also try the city market in the city centre, though I biliv they should be quite expensive there.

Hbuyosh: U aint serious Pavore, no yams in Nairobi?
You told me u stay in Buruburu right? Go to the Buruburu shopping centre, and opposite those shopping malls, accross the road, there is that market called Mutidwa.
Apart from cheap clothes and jewelry, they also sell a wide range of groceries, some of which i hav no idea what they are called, and u will find lots of yams at very good price.

(I hope ur Nigerian accent wont give u away though, they tend to overchare foreigners in such markets).
You can also try the city market in the city centre, though I biliv they should be quite expensive there.

I know Mutidwa, l hope the yam you are talking about is not that variety from Embu l saw at Marikiti market that takes years to cook!

Pavore9: I know Mutidwa, l hope the yam you are talking about is not that variety from Embu l saw at Marikiti market that takes years to cook!

I donno that for sure, I biliv they obtain their groceries from various parts of the country, u better go try them out. I remember seen some in Tuskys Buruburu mall,the groceries section a while back. They surely cant miss there.

I'm not sure if the variety we have here are different in certain ways from the ones u have in w. Africa, I have never heard pipo here complain about some yams taking ages to cook.

Hbuyosh: I donno that for sure, I biliv they obtain their groceries from various parts of the country, u better go try them out. I remember seen some in Tuskys Buruburu mall,the groceries section a while back. They surely cant miss there.

I'm not sure if the variety we have here are different in certain ways from the ones u have in w. Africa, I have never heard pipo here complain about some yams taking ages to cook.

l will check the variety at Tuskys and the uchumi nearby. Fortunately l will finding many nigeria food in kenya markets such as mirenda which is called ewedu back in Nigeria and bambara nut (Njugu eaten mostly by luos ) which is called okpa back home. l got Palm oil at the market opposite Aga khan in parklands also found Plantain there,l think they were brought from Burundi.

@ op, u can add eruru for some banging flavour 2 d fiofio. Miea d eruru na oku den grind it n add d mixture b4 ehunye d fiofio. Udo!!

And I cooked it and it was wonderful.Thank you very much

Pls write the procedure for the plain agidi