Ogi

Ingredients

Fermented starch

• 1 kgwhite or yellow maize (or 700 g maize plus 300 g sorghum)
• water to cover, changed daily
• 1 tbspcloves and a few grains of alligator pepper, tied in muslin (optional, traditional)

To cook, per serving

• 100 gwet ogi starch
• 60 mlcold water
• 250 mlboiling water
• sugar and evaporated milk, to taste

Directions

1. Rinse the maize, put it in a large bowl or clay pot and cover with 3–4 cm of cool water. Leave to steep at room temperature (28–32°C (80–90°F) is ideal) for 2–3 days, changing the water each morning; the grains swell, soften and start to smell pleasantly sour.
2. The maize is ready when a grain crushes to paste between your fingers and the steeping water smells like sourdough, not putrid.
3. Drain and wet-mill the grain with just enough fresh water to keep the mill turning, to a fine slurry. A blender works; run it long enough that no grit remains between your fingers.
4. Sieve the slurry through a fine cloth or chiffon sieve in batches, working it with your hand and rinsing with water, until only the bran and germ are left in the cloth. Discard those.
5. Let the sieved liquid stand undisturbed 12–24 hours in a cool place. The starch settles into a dense white cake with sour water on top.
6. Pour off the sour water, or leave a finger’s depth over the starch to keep it from drying – this is how ogi is stored in the market, refrigerated, for up to a week.
7. To cook, slake 100 g of the starch with 60 ml cold water into a smooth cream with absolutely no lumps.
8. Pour 250 ml furiously boiling water into the cream in a thin stream while whisking hard. The mixture will thicken and turn glossy and translucent almost at once. If it stays milky and thin, return it to the pan and cook 2 minutes, whisking.
9. Sweeten to taste, thin with a little evaporated milk and serve hot with akara or moin moin.

Technique

• The water must be at a true rolling boil when it hits the starch. Merely hot water gives a raw, chalky pap that will not gel.
• A sour, yoghurt-like smell during steeping is correct – lactic acid bacteria dominate. Slimy ropiness, pink colour or a rotten smell means the batch has gone wrong; throw it out and start again with cleaner water.
• Yellow maize gives ogi its golden colour and slightly sweeter flavour; white maize gives the paler, sharper pap. Sorghum makes ogi baba, the reddish-brown version.

Substitutions

• In a hurry, fine maize meal soured overnight with 3 tbsp live yoghurt gives an approximation, though it lacks the clean acidity of a true three-day steep.
• Millet can replace up to a third of the maize for a nuttier ogi.

Variations

• Akamu or koko, the same food under its Igbo and northern names.
• Ogi baba, made from red sorghum, darker and more tannic.
• Cold set ogi (eko or agidi), poured into leaf-lined moulds and allowed to set firm, then sliced.

History

Maize is steeped for days, milled and sieved until it sours; ogi is Nigeria’s classic breakfast and weaning food.

Frequently asked questions

What is Ogi?

Ogi is a fermented & pickled from Nigeria: soured fermented maize starch cooked to a smooth pap, eaten with akara or moin moin. Maize is steeped for days, milled and sieved until it sours; ogi is Nigeria’s classic breakfast and weaning food.

How long does Ogi take to make?

Ogi takes 20 min of preparation and 3 days steeping, plus 10 min cooking of cooking. The recipe makes 6 servings of pap (from about 700 g wet starch). It is rated medium to make.

What can I substitute in Ogi?

Yes, within limits. In a hurry, fine maize meal soured overnight with 3 tbsp live yoghurt gives an approximation, though it lacks the clean acidity of a true three-day steep. Millet can replace up to a third of the maize for a nuttier ogi.

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

The water must be at a true rolling boil when it hits the starch. Merely hot water gives a raw, chalky pap that will not gel.