Kunun aya

Ingredients

Tiger nuts

• 500 gdried tiger nuts
• aya or chufa
• water, for soaking

To blend

• 150 gdates, stoned
• or 100 g sugar
• 3cm fresh ginger
• 1.5 litreswater
• a pinch of salt

Sometimes added

• a few cloves
• a pinch of nutmeg
• coconut flesh
• vanilla

To serve

• chilled, in tumblers
• with ice
• as a street drink

Directions

1. Squeeze it hard to get all the liquid. Stir or shake it before every pour. Rinse them thoroughly in cold water. Rub them between both your hands. Rinse them until the water runs clear.
2. Pick out any that look damaged. Put them into a large clean bowl. Cover them with plenty of cold water. Leave them to soak for a full day. They should give slightly when squeezed. Keep them refrigerated while soaking in warm weather. Change the water if it smells at all off.
3. Stone all of the dates completely. Chop all of them up quite roughly. Soak them in a little warm water. Give them about twenty minutes. Drain all the soaked tiger nuts. Put them into a strong blender. Add the dates and the ginger to it. Add enough water to blend them. Blending it properly takes real time. Blend it for several full minutes.
4. Work in batches if your blender is small. They take longer than most things to break down. Blend it far longer than seems necessary. Judging the blend takes a look. Add the rest of the water gradually. Blend it in a little at a time. That helps extract more from the pulp.
5. Line a sieve with muslin or a clean cloth. Pour the blended mixture into it. Let all the liquid run through it. Twist it and squeeze it very hard. Keep squeezing until no more comes out. Put your whole weight into it. Return the pulp to the blender. Add a little more water to it. Blend it again briefly afterwards.
6. Strain and squeeze it a second time. Taste the strained liquid first. Add sugar if it needs more sweetness. Add a good pinch of salt to it. It is not enough to taste salty. Keep it refrigerated at all times.
7. Discard it if it smells at all sour. Serving it is always done ice cold. Stir or shake it well before pouring. Pour it over ice in tall tumblers. It is drunk cold in the heat of the day. Make it fresh each time where you can.

Technique

• Tiger nuts are not nuts but small tubers of a sedge, Cyperus esculentus, grown underground on the roots; the same tuber is chufa in Spain, where Valencia grows it for horchata de chufa made the same way, so the two drinks are genuine relatives. Horchata elsewhere means quite different things: the Mexican one is rice based and the Ecuadorian one a herb infusion, sharing only the name.
• Dried tiger nuts are extremely hard and need a full day of soaking, two in cool weather, since hard tubers will not blend smoothly and give up far less of their milk; they are also hard even when soaked, so blend far longer than seems necessary.
• A great deal of liquid stays in the pulp, so gather the straining cloth up, twist it and squeeze hard, then blend the pulp again with a little water and strain a second time; a gentle strain wastes about a third of the drink.

Substitutions

• Sugar stands in for dates, though the sweetness is flatter.
• The leftover pulp goes into porridge or baking in some households.

Variations

• Cloves, nutmeg, coconut flesh or vanilla are all common additions.
• Horchata de chufa in Valencia is made from the same tuber the same way.
• It is sold chilled over ice as a street drink across the Hausa belt.

History

Made from aya, the tiger nut tubers grown across the Hausa belt, blended and strained and drunk chilled.

Frequently asked questions

What is Kunun aya?

Kunun aya is a drink from Niger: sweet milky drink of ground tiger nuts with dates and ginger. Made from aya, the tiger nut tubers grown across the Hausa belt, blended and strained and drunk chilled.

How long does Kunun aya take to make?

Kunun aya takes 20 minutes plus soaking of preparation and no cooking at all. The recipe makes about 2 litres. It is rated easy to make.

What can I substitute in Kunun aya?

Yes, within limits. Sugar stands in for dates, though the sweetness is flatter. The leftover pulp goes into porridge or baking in some households.