Kunu aya

Ingredients

The tigernuts

• 400 gdried tigernuts
• aya, or chufa
• soaked overnight
• or 500 g fresh tigernuts

The additions

• 150 gdates
• stoned, soaked with the nuts
• or 100 g dates and 50 g raisins
• 100 gfresh coconut
• chopped, or 60 g desiccated
• soaked

The liquid and flavouring

• about 1.5 litres water
• boiled and cooled
• a thumb of fresh ginger
• optional, to taste
• sugar or honey, to taste
• only if needed
• a pinch of salt
• half a teaspoon vanilla
• optional

Equipment

• a strong blender
• a fine sieve or muslin
• clean bottles
• ice, to serve

Directions

1. Brown are the commonest. Rinse them well first. Cover them with plenty of cold water. Soak them for at least twenty-four hours. Forty-eight hours is better. Soak them in the refrigerator in warm weather. Left warm for two days they begin to ferment. Discard any that smell sour or fermented. Soak the dates with the tigernuts, or separately. They soften in a few hours.
2. Soak desiccated coconut in warm water. Fresh coconut needs no soaking. Remove every stone. This needs a strong blender. Drain the soaked tigernuts. Put them in the blender with the dates and coconut. Add about half the water. Add the ginger if you are using it.
3. Blend it for a full three minutes. A short blend gives a thin watery drink. Work in batches if it labours. Let the motor rest between batches. It gives a warm sharpness against the sweetness.
4. Add the rest of the water. Let the blended mixture stand thirty minutes. Stir it occasionally. Line a sieve with muslin over a large bowl. Pour the mixture through. Squeeze out every drop you can. This takes real force. Keep squeezing until the pulp is dry.
5. Return the pulp to the bowl. Add a little more water and work it. Strain and squeeze it again. Taste the strained drink. The dates may have sweetened it enough.
6. Add sugar or honey only if it needs it. Add a pinch of salt. Add vanilla if you like. It should be like a thin milk. Add water if it is too thick. Blend and strain more nuts if it is thin. Pour it into clean bottles. Refrigerate it for at least three hours.
7. Keep it refrigerated at all times. Use clean bottles and clean utensils. Discard it if it smells sour or fizzes. Serve it very cold over ice. Shake it well before pouring. Shake it hard and it recombines. It keeps two or three days refrigerated. Blend it briefly to recover it. Dried tigernuts keep a year in a sealed container.

Technique

• Soak the tigernuts at least twenty-four hours, preferably forty-eight, changing the water once or twice. They are extremely hard dried, soften slowly and unevenly, and under-soaked nuts blend badly and give a thin drink.
• Soak them refrigerated in warm weather. Left warm for two days they begin to ferment, which is not what this drink intends.
• Blend for a full three minutes, beyond the point it looks done. Tigernut fibre holds its liquid tightly and a short blend gives a watery drink. Work in batches if the motor labours and let it rest.
• Squeeze the muslin hard. The pulp holds a great deal of liquid and this takes real force — keep going until the pulp is dry, then do a second extraction with a little more water.
• Remove every date stone before blending. One will destroy a blender.
• Rinse the tigernuts thoroughly before soaking. They grow underground and carry grit.
• Taste before adding sugar. The dates and the tigernuts themselves may have sweetened it enough, and a pinch of salt sharpens the sweetness more usefully than more sugar would.
• Tigernuts are not nuts — they are the tubers of a sedge, Cyperus esculentus, and carry no tree nut allergens. Cross-contamination in processing is possible, so anyone with a severe nut allergy should check the packaging.
• This is unpasteurised and never heated, and its starch and sugar feed bacteria readily, so it spoils faster than a clear drink. Keep it refrigerated, use clean bottles, drink it within two or three days, and discard it if it smells sour or fizzes.
• It separates considerably on standing — solids settling, water rising. That is normal and it recombines with hard shaking.
• Unlike most kunu, which is made from grain and soured or fermented, kunu aya is simply blended and strained. It sits apart from the rest of the family.
• Horchata de chufa in Valencia is made from the same tuber by the same method. Whether one influenced the other is not something the atlas can establish — the plant grows in both places and the technique is obvious enough to arise twice.
• Tigernut drinks carry many health claims. The atlas records that those claims exist and repeats none of them.

Substitutions

• Fresh tigernuts replace dried and need only a few hours of soaking.
• Raisins or a little sugar replace some of the dates.
• Desiccated coconut, soaked, replaces fresh; use unsweetened only.
• Ginger is used generously in some households and left out in others.
• Vanilla, nutmeg or a little cinnamon round off the drink.
• Less water gives a thicker, more milkshake-like drink.

Variations

• Kunu zaki, made from millet or sorghum, is the fermented grain version and the commonest kunu.
• Horchata de chufa in Valencia is the same tuber drink in Spain.
• Zobo, made from dried hibiscus, is the other great Nigerian cold drink.
• A version blended with more coconut is richer and thicker.
• Tigernut milk sold commercially is the industrial descendant.
• Fura da nono, millet balls in soured milk, is the other northern Nigerian drink of the same kind.

Frequently asked questions

What is Kunu aya?

Kunu aya is a drink from Nigeria: milky drink of blended tigernuts with dates and coconut, served chilled.

How long does Kunu aya take to make?

Kunu aya takes 20 minutes plus overnight soaking of preparation and none of cooking. The recipe makes makes about 2 litres. It is rated easy to make.

What can I substitute in Kunu aya?

Yes, within limits. Fresh tigernuts replace dried and need only a few hours of soaking. Raisins or a little sugar replace some of the dates. Desiccated coconut, soaked, replaces fresh; use unsweetened only. Ginger is used generously in some households and left out in others. Vanilla, nutmeg or a little cinnamon round off the drink. Less water gives a thicker, more milkshake-like drink.

What is the most important thing to get right in Kunu aya?

Blend for a full three minutes, beyond the point it looks done. Tigernut fibre holds its liquid tightly and a short blend gives a watery drink. Work in batches if the motor labours and let it rest.