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HOW TO PROCESS CASSAVA INTO GARRI
Nigerian Garri is made from fermented cassava. Cassava tubers are harvested from farms, peeled, washed, milled and tied in bags to ferment for one to three days or more depending on how
slappy/sour tasting the farmer wants the garri to turn out. While fermenting, the cassava juice is squeezed out and that really reduces the cassava starch as only the almost dry ground cassava flour is left.
This is further dry fried or say toasted in special heavy garri pots made for this purpose sat above hot firewood. Once the cassava is completely dry in the hot pot, it’s taken out, cooled, aired and packed in sacks for sale or consumption.
Drinking soak garri in Nigeria
Garri used to be very affordable in Nigeria, especially in those days when we saw semo and other forms of fufu swallow as more ‘classier swallows’ than garri. Maybe, garri was somehow seen as food for the not so rich and students, was not so much in demand like now.
Garri is among the very expensive forms of swallow these days. When this garri also called cassava flakes, LOL! is cooked with hot water, we call it eba and that’s served with delicious Nigerian soups.
However, when the cassava flakes are added to cold water and eaten with a spoon, it’s called soaked garri or drinking garri.
This form of taking garri is popular. While some people prefer the ijebu garri, others prefer the yellow or white garri as they are called by the garri sellers.
Processing cassava to garri manually is very intense and tedious as the farmer has to sit y the fire the whole time stirring the dry cassava flour so it doesn’t burn.
Soaking garri has become so popular that it’s no longer seen as student’s food. Who doesn’t love soaked garri in chill water when the weather is hot or after a long walk under the scorching African sun.
To soak garri, the major ingredients are water and salt or sweeteners like sugar or honey. Every other ingredient is optional. Some prefer to soak their garri with just water alone, no salt, no sweeter, no ingredient added.
Adding some yummy ingredients automatically changes soaked garri from snack to a complete balanced meal with all required nutrients. There were times I thought that soak garri is addictive. Why?
Even after eating to my fill, I still craved some garri as top up before the day rounds up and I have seen people who can soak garri every day of the year without getting tired.
The days of Lassa fever made some Nigerians fall sick because they couldn’t take soaked garri for fear of Lassa fever, this is because some communities have a method of processing the garri by roasting in the pot just a little while the final drying is achieved under the hot sun and people feared rats could be crawling on the garri spread out to dry under the sun.
Hygienic methods of processing garri without drying on the ground
The method of processing Garri that I know is very hygienic as rats can never have contact to the garri from beginning to the end.
Not everyone knows these 15 methods of soaking garri listed below. However, they are all very delicious. Try them and see.
1. Garri with fish by cassagarri as shown in the picture above. Just add water to garri, make it as thick or watery as you want and enjoy with the fish. Adding sugar and milk is luxury for now.
See below 15 ways to enjoy soaking garri in Nigeria (Below)
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| Going down with cashew nuts, milk and sugar served with a side of corned beef moi moi. |
| How to make moi moi in bags, serve with cold garri. |
2. My favourite is garri served with cashew nuts, milk and sugar. It’s delicious and filling. Adding moi moi as seen above makes it a complete Naija meal.
3. Soaked garri with bananas, coconuts, groundnuts. milk and sugar.
4. Garri with milk, coconuts and sweetener of choice.
5. milk and crunchy chin chin.
6. Garri with groundnuts milk and bananas.
7. Garri with avocado pear, milk and sugar.
8. avocado pear, milk sugar and groundnut
9. Garri with tiger nuts, coconuts and groundnuts.
10. Garri with bananas
11. Garri with akara balls. I look forward to trying garri with akara balls some day.
12. Add milk, sugar and almonds. Very delicious.
13. Garri with Roasted Nigerian pear.
14. Garri with water, salt and moin moin
Try these Nigerian recipes
- How to cook coconut milk plantain porridge
- Corned beef moi moi cooked in leaves
- Tasty moi moi with egg and corned beef
- Health benefits of moi moi and pap
- Okpa beans akara
- Red beans moi moi