RACINES foufou is a cassava flour: a single ingredient, cassava, dried then ground. Stirred into boiling water, it makes a smooth, elastic paste, foufou, which is eaten with the sauces of West and Central Africa. 1 kg sachet.
What is foufou flour?
A fine, white flour made from cassava roots that are dried then ground. The word foufou, or fufu in English, refers both to this flour and to the paste made from it. There are also yam or plantain foufous: this one is 100% cassava. It should not be confused with gari, a cassava semolina that is fermented then roasted and eaten differently, nor with attiéké, a fermented semolina cooked by steaming.
What is cassava flour called?
Depending on the country and the use, the same flour made from dried cassava roots goes by several names: foufou or fufu flour when it is meant for the paste, manioc flour, or simply cassava flour, as it is called in English. It is different from tapioca, which is the starch extracted from cassava, from gari, a fermented and roasted semolina, and from attiéké, a fermented semolina cooked by steaming. Cassava, native to the Amazon basin and brought to Africa by Portuguese navigators in the sixteenth century, is today one of the most widely grown starchy foods in the world.
How to prepare foufou?
- Bring water to the boil: the sachet indicates one glass of water for one glass of flour.
- Sprinkle the flour into the water over low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spatula.
- Crush the lumps and work the paste until it is smooth and even, then shape it into balls.
Add a little hot water if the paste is too firm. The step-by-step recipe is on the blog: cassava foufou.
Foufou, fufu, foutou: what is the difference?
Foufou and fufu are the same word, in French and in English, for cassava paste, whether stirred into water or pounded. In Côte d'Ivoire, foutou refers to the paste pounded from boiled tubers, most often yam or plantain. Born among the Akan peoples of Ghana, where it was originally made with yam or plantain, foufou spread with cassava throughout West and Central Africa. The blog article explains the difference between foufou, fufu and foutou, and the recipes for yam foutou and plantain foutou show the pounded version.
What to serve foufou with?
Foufou is eaten with a sauce: sauce graine with TROFAI sauce graine, peanut sauce with BONMAFÉ peanut paste, okra sauce with okra powder, or a leaf soup such as pondu. You tear off a piece with your fingers to scoop up the sauce. Akpi-Kablè foufou chilli adds heat to the whole dish, and the foufou kit brings together the flour and the sauce.
How to store foufou flour?
In a dry place, away from light, with the sachet tightly resealed after opening. Prepared foufou is eaten hot, as soon as it is shaped.
What to pair it with?
EXOTICA cassava foufou, a flour from Cameroon, is the other foufou flour in the section. For the Ghanaian version, Banku mate 2 fermented cassava flour makes banku. The whole section: flours and starches.
Product information
- Brand: RACINES (importer: Racines SA, Montpellier)
- Contents: 1 kg sachet
- Ingredients: 100% cassava
- Allergens: none of the 14 regulated allergens; cassava does not contain gluten
- Nutritional values per 100 g: energy 1407 kJ (332 kcal), fat less than 0.5 g of which saturates less than 0.1 g, carbohydrates 78 g of which sugars less than 0.5 g, fibre 4.1 g, protein 1.6 g, salt 0.01 g
- Origin: product of West Africa, according to the sachet
- Storage: in a dry place, away from light
