Akpan

Ingredients

Maize

• 500 gwhite maize grains, or coarse maize flour
• water for soaking

To serve

• 2 litrescold water
• sugar to taste
• ice

Sometimes

• a little sweetened condensed milk
• grated ginger
• a pinch of salt

To serve

• cold, from a calabash, in the market

Directions

1. Use scrupulously clean equipment and keep everything covered. Soak the maize grains in plenty of water for a day, changing the water once. Rub them between your palms and pour off the floating hulls, which gives a whiter, cleaner dough.
2. Grind the drained soaked grains into a coarse wet dough, with as little added water as possible. In Benin this is done at a market mill, and a food processor manages it at home in batches.
3. Put the dough in a bowl, cover it with a cloth, and leave it at room temperature for two to three days. Warmth speeds it considerably, and in a cool kitchen it will take longer.
4. Stir the dough once every day. Take about a third of the fermented dough and mix it with water into a thin slurry. Cook that slurry, stirring constantly, until it thickens into a smooth paste. Cook it for ten to fifteen minutes so the starch gelatinises fully and the raw taste goes.
5. Stir it without stopping and scrape the base, since it catches readily. It must be entirely cold before the raw fermented dough is added back. Mix the cooled cooked paste with the remaining raw fermented dough. That combination of cooked and raw is what gives akpan its particular texture, thick and slightly grainy with a live sourness.
6. Whisk in cold water gradually until it is the consistency you want. It is usually drunk thick enough to be filling but thin enough to drink from a calabash.
7. Add sugar generously, since the fermented base is genuinely sour and needs balancing. Dissolve the sugar in a little warm water first, since granulated sugar will not dissolve in a cold drink. Serve it out very cold over ice. It keeps two or three days refrigerated and it gets more sour each day.

Technique

• It is made from mawè, the fermented maize dough that underpins many regional foods.
• A good ferment smells sourly of sourdough; anything putrid or mouldy is discarded.
• Part of the dough is cooked and cooled before the raw dough is added back.

Substitutions

• Coarse maize flour in place of whole grains, which ferments faster.
• Condensed milk to soften the sourness.

Variations

• With ginger grated into it.
• Served thicker, closer to a porridge.
• Sweetened with condensed milk.

History

Made from mawè dough, it is sold from calabashes in Cotonou markets and studied as a traditional lactic-fermented cereal beverage.

Frequently asked questions

What is Akpan?

Akpan is a drink from Benin: tart fermented maize drink thinned with water and sugared over ice. Made from mawè dough, it is sold from calabashes in Cotonou markets and studied as a traditional lactic-fermented cereal beverage.

How long does Akpan take to make?

Akpan takes 30 min plus 2 to 3 days fermenting of preparation and 30 min of cooking. The recipe makes 2 litres. It is rated hard to make.

What can I substitute in Akpan?

Yes, within limits. Coarse maize flour in place of whole grains, which ferments faster. Condensed milk to soften the sourness.

What is the most important thing to get right in Akpan?

Stir it without stopping and scrape the base, since it catches readily. It must be entirely cold before the raw fermented dough is added back. Mix the cooled cooked paste with the remaining raw fermented dough. That combination of cooked and raw is what gives akpan its particular texture, thick and slightly grainy with a live sourness.