Pondu

Ingredients

Stew

• 800 gpounded cassava leaves, fresh or frozen (saka-saka)
• 1.5 Lwater
• 2onions, finely chopped
• 6garlic cloves, crushed
• 4spring onions, chopped
• 2aubergines, cut into chunks
• 250 gsmoked fish, flaked, bones removed
• 150 gdried salted fish (makayabu), soaked 2 hours and torn up
• 150 mlred palm oil
• 2pili-pili chillies, chopped
• 2 tbspground crayfish or dried shrimp powder
• 1 tspsalt

To serve

• fufu, chikwangue or steamed rice

Directions

1. If the cassava leaves are fresh, they must be pounded to a fine green pulp in a mortar before cooking. Frozen pounded leaves, sold in African shops, are already prepared and go straight in.
2. Put the pounded leaves in a large pot with the water, bring to the boil and simmer, uncovered, for a full hour. Do not shorten this: prolonged boiling is what breaks down the cyanogenic compounds in cassava leaves and makes them safe, as well as removing their bitterness.
3. Add the chopped onion, garlic, spring onion and chilli and continue simmering 20 minutes.
4. Stir in the aubergine chunks and the ground crayfish, and cook 15 minutes until the aubergine has collapsed and thickened the pot.
5. Add the smoked fish and the soaked salted fish and simmer 15 minutes more, so their flavour goes right through the leaves.
6. Pour in the red palm oil and stir it through. Simmer a final 10 minutes, uncovered, until the stew is dark green, thick, and glossy with oil sitting at the edges.
7. Taste for salt only now, at the very end: the smoked and salted fish have already seasoned the pot and it is easy to overshoot.
8. Serve very hot in a bowl beside fufu or chikwangue, and eat by pinching up the stew with a ball of the swallow.

Technique

• Cassava leaves must be pounded and boiled thoroughly. This is a food-safety point, not a matter of taste: insufficiently cooked cassava leaf retains cyanogenic glycosides. An hour of hard boiling is the traditional minimum for good reason.
• Pondu is called saka-saka in the west of the country and sombe further east, and it is the everyday vegetable of the whole Congo basin, eaten several times a week.
• Add the palm oil late. Boiling it for an hour destroys its aroma and its orange colour, and the finished stew should be visibly slicked with it.

Substitutions

• No cassava leaves at all: spinach and sweet potato leaves in equal parts give a similar dark, mineral stew, though not the same fibrous texture. In that case boil for only 20 minutes.

Variations

• Pondu with beef or goat instead of fish, browned first and simmered in with the leaves.
• A meat-free version with just aubergine, palm oil, onion and chilli, eaten during fasts.

History

Cassava leaves pounded and boiled for hours, the DRC’s most widely eaten vegetable and the standard partner to fufu and rice.

Frequently asked questions

What is Pondu?

Pondu is a soup & stew from DR Congo: cassava-leaf stew with palm oil and fish or meat; ubiquitous. Cassava leaves pounded and boiled for hours, the DRC’s most widely eaten vegetable and the standard partner to fufu and rice.

How long does Pondu take to make?

Pondu takes 20 min of preparation and 1 hr 45 min of cooking. The recipe makes 6 servings. It is rated easy to make.

What can I substitute in Pondu?

Yes, within limits. No cassava leaves at all: spinach and sweet potato leaves in equal parts give a similar dark, mineral stew, though not the same fibrous texture. In that case boil for only 20 minutes.

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

If the cassava leaves are fresh, they must be pounded to a fine green pulp in a mortar before cooking. Frozen pounded leaves, sold in African shops, are already prepared and go straight in.