Banku and Kenkey are two more Fufu-like staples from Western Africa, served with a soup or stew or sauce. They are particularly popular in Ghana. Both are usually made from ground corn (maize), as are Sadza and Ugali, though Banku can also be made from a mixture of maize and grated Cassava tuber. Unlike Ugali, making Banku or Kenkey involves letting the maize (or maize and cassava tuber) ferment before cooking, as is done with cassava tubers when they are made into Baton de Manioc. Banku is cooked in a pot; Kenkey is partially cooked, then wrapped in banana leaves, maize or corn husks, or foil, and steamed.
Banku and Kenkey Recipe
Prep Time3 daysCook Time30 minsTotal Time3 days 30 minsYields6 Servings
Ingredients
6cupsorn (maize) flour or cornmeal (ground corn or ground maize); (White cornmeal is preferred, it should be finely ground, like flour. Latin American style corn flour, as is used in tortillas, tamales, pupusas, etc. is the right kind); for Banku only: a similar amount of equal parts corn flour and grated cassava tuber may be substituted
for Kenkey only: banana leaves, or maize or corn husks, or aluminum foil to wrap dough in
Instructions
Prepare the fermented cornmeal dough
Traditional Method:
In a large container combine the corn flour (or corn flour and grated cassava) with just enough warm water to dampen all of it. Mix well. Cover the container with a clean cloth. Set it in a warm place, such as a warmed oven or on top of the refrigerator, for two to three days. Fermentation may take longer than two days, especially in cool climates. (Note: a warmed oven is an oven that has been heated for a few minutes then turned off. The flour should ferment, not cook.) When it is properly fermented, it should have a slightly sour, but not unpleasant, aroma — like rising bread dough. Overly fermented corn flour will not taste right.
Alternate method:
Prepare the corn flour as described above, and let it ferment for about six hours. Then mix one tablespoon of vinegar into the wet corn flour. Once the fermented dough is ready, prepare Banku or Kenkey according to the following methods.
To prepare Banku
Knead the fermented dough with your hands until it is thoroughly mixed and slightly stiffened.
In a large pot, bring one cup of water to a boil. Slowly add the fermented dough. Cook for 20 minutes or more, stirring constantly and vigorously. The banku should become thick and stiff. Add water as necessary, if it becomes too dry. Form the banku into serving-sized balls (about the size of a tennis ball). May be served hot or cool (room-temperature).
To prepare Kenkey
Knead the fermented dough with your hands until it is thoroughly mixed and slightly stiffened. Divide the dough into two equal parts.
In a large pot, bring one cup of water to a boil. Slowly add one part of the fermented dough. Cook for about ten minutes, stirring constantly and vigorously. Remove from heat. This half of the dough is called the "aflata".
Combine the aflata with the remaining uncooked dough. Mix well.
Divide the aflata-dough mixture into serving-sized pieces. Wrap the pieces tightly in banana leaf, maize or corn husks, or foil. Banana leaves are more flexible if they have been briefly warmed in a hot oven or a pot of boiling water. The wrapped dough should look like burritos or tamales. Cooking string can be used to tie the wrapping closed.
Place the wrapped dough packets on a wire rack above water in a large pot. Bring to a boil and steam for one to three hours, depending on their size and thickness. Serve room-temperature.
Ingredients
6cupsorn (maize) flour or cornmeal (ground corn or ground maize); (White cornmeal is preferred, it should be finely ground, like flour. Latin American style corn flour, as is used in tortillas, tamales, pupusas, etc. is the right kind); for Banku only: a similar amount of equal parts corn flour and grated cassava tuber may be substituted
for Kenkey only: banana leaves, or maize or corn husks, or aluminum foil to wrap dough in
Directions
Prepare the fermented cornmeal dough
1
Traditional Method:
In a large container combine the corn flour (or corn flour and grated cassava) with just enough warm water to dampen all of it. Mix well. Cover the container with a clean cloth. Set it in a warm place, such as a warmed oven or on top of the refrigerator, for two to three days. Fermentation may take longer than two days, especially in cool climates. (Note: a warmed oven is an oven that has been heated for a few minutes then turned off. The flour should ferment, not cook.) When it is properly fermented, it should have a slightly sour, but not unpleasant, aroma — like rising bread dough. Overly fermented corn flour will not taste right.
Alternate method:
Prepare the corn flour as described above, and let it ferment for about six hours. Then mix one tablespoon of vinegar into the wet corn flour. Once the fermented dough is ready, prepare Banku or Kenkey according to the following methods.
To prepare Banku
2
Knead the fermented dough with your hands until it is thoroughly mixed and slightly stiffened.
In a large pot, bring one cup of water to a boil. Slowly add the fermented dough. Cook for 20 minutes or more, stirring constantly and vigorously. The banku should become thick and stiff. Add water as necessary, if it becomes too dry. Form the banku into serving-sized balls (about the size of a tennis ball). May be served hot or cool (room-temperature).
To prepare Kenkey
3
Knead the fermented dough with your hands until it is thoroughly mixed and slightly stiffened. Divide the dough into two equal parts.
In a large pot, bring one cup of water to a boil. Slowly add one part of the fermented dough. Cook for about ten minutes, stirring constantly and vigorously. Remove from heat. This half of the dough is called the "aflata".
Combine the aflata with the remaining uncooked dough. Mix well.
Divide the aflata-dough mixture into serving-sized pieces. Wrap the pieces tightly in banana leaf, maize or corn husks, or foil. Banana leaves are more flexible if they have been briefly warmed in a hot oven or a pot of boiling water. The wrapped dough should look like burritos or tamales. Cooking string can be used to tie the wrapping closed.
Place the wrapped dough packets on a wire rack above water in a large pot. Bring to a boil and steam for one to three hours, depending on their size and thickness. Serve room-temperature.
Serve Banku or Kenkey with Palaver ‘Sauce’, or any fish, fowl, or meat dish from Western Africa.
Note: ready-to-use fermented cornmeal dough made especially for banku and kenkey may be available at African import grocery stores and should be prepared according to package instructions.
The first thing they take care of
Thomas Astley
Between 1745 and 1747 Thomas Astley published four volumes titled A new General Collection of Voyages and Travels; consisting of the most esteemed relations, which have been hitherto published in any language; comprehending everything remarkable in its kind, in Europe, Asia, Africa, and America (London: 1745-47, printed for Thomas Astley). This publication brought together travel writings from various sources and languages and is generally recognized as one of the best sources of African travel writing of its era. This excerpt describes processing corn (maize or other grain) as a staple food.
The first Thing they take Care of, in the Article of Diet, is to make the Bread. In the Evening the Women set-by the Quantity of Corn thought necessary for the Family the succeeding Day, which is brought by the Slaves from the Barn or Granary without the Village, though some have their Storehouse at home. This Corn the Women beat in the Trunk of a Tree, hollowed for that Purpose like a Mortar, or in deep Holes of Rocks allotted for that Use, with wooden Pestles. Then they winnow and grind it on a flat Stone, as our Painters do Colours. Lastly, they mix it with Flour of Millet and knead it to a Sort of Dough, which they divide into small, round Pieces, as big as a Man’s Fist, and boil in a large Earthen Pan full of Water, like Dumplins.
This sort of Bread is tolerable, but very heavy on the Stomach. The same Dough, baked on very hot Stones, is much better. The Mina Bread is esteemed the best on the Coast, the Women there being more expert at making it.
They make also a sort of Biscuit of this Dough, which will keep three or four Months. With this they use to victual their large Canoas, which trade to Angola. Besides they make a Sort of round twisted Cake, called Quanquais, which are sold in the Markets, and are agreeable enough.
Though the Way of beating and dressing their Corn be very laborious, yet the Women perform it chearfully in the open, scorching Air, many having their Children at their Back.
[Vol. II; Sect II — Of their (i.e. the Gold Coast Negroes) Buildings, Furniture and Diet]
Kankie is native bread
Richard Francis Burton
Richard F. Burton, the 19th century traveler, writer, and translator, describes Kankie in his Wanderings in West Africa(New York: Dover Publications, Inc, 1991 “Two Volumes bound as One”; originally published by Tinsley Brothers, London, 1863). Webster’s defines triturate as crush, grind or to pulverize and comminute thoroughly by rubbing or grinding.
I can name and describe the qualities of the dishes to which we paid more particular attention, but their composition is complicated and tasteful enough to puzzle the brains of the lady who writes the cookerybook. “Kankie” is native bread: the flour, at first not unlike the “yaller male” of the Land of Potatoes, must be manipulated till it becomes snowy white: after various complicated operations–soaking the grain, pounding, husking, triturating, and keeping till the right moment, it is boiled or roasted and packed in plantain leaves. It is as superior to the sour, brown, sodden mass tasting of butter-milk–like palm-wine and mildew, used by the Europeans on this coast and called bread, as a Parisian roll to the London quartern loaf.
(Volume II, Chapter IX, A Pleasant Day in the Land of Ants [Accra])
The best agidi she had ever seen in her life
In The Slave Girl (New York: George Braziller, 1977) Nigerian novelist Buchi Emecheta describes agidi, a staple much like Banku and Kenkey. Elsewhere, agidi is described as “cornmeal mush” or “pap” and it is evidently made from fermented cornmeal. The agidi from Accra must be especially good.
“… buy … a piece of agidi from those people from Accra. Have you eaten their agidi before? It is very nice”
Ojebeta nooded once more; she had tasted “agidi Akala”, as her dead mother used to call it. On the days her mother used to go to Onishta she would buy one large piece, and Ojebeta and all her friends and her father would sit up and wait for her to come home from Otu, just to have their little bits of Accra agidi. In those days it had beed a real delicacy for her; and now she was once more going to have some to eat, he mouth watered like a dog’s.
. . .
Chiago soon arrived with the corn dough steaming. It was the first time Ojebta had seen it hot, for the agidi her mother used to buy was always cold by the time she reached home from the market. She watched Chiago peeling the leaves off and putting them into another white bowl.
“Do you want pepper on it?” asked Chiago then.
Ma Palagada, who had seemed to be unaware of the goings on, intervened: “Let her do it the way she wants. Give her the pepper and salt. She can spice it herself.”
So Chiago handed her Ojebeta the whitest and the best agidi she had ever seen in her life.
(A Necessary Evil)