Agidi

🥣 Pure-cornstarch dough cooked and set in four soft portions, a plain accompaniment with separate sauce.

Ingredients

• 100 g pure food-grade cornstarch, not cornmeal or whole maize flour
• 600 ml drinking water divided for slurry and heating
• Small pinch salt, optional
• A little drinking water to moisten four food-safe moulds

Preparation

Mix starch with 200 ml taken from cold water until smooth. Slightly wet four shallow heatproof food moulds.

Bring remaining 400 ml water and optional salt to simmer, about five minutes. Stir slurry again just before using.

Gradually whisk slurry into hot water, reduce heat and stir to the bottom to avoid lumps or sticking.

Cook gently about ten minutes with a sturdy spatula until thick, smooth and fully cooked without dry pockets.

Immediately divide into four moulds. Cool ten minutes then refrigerate about thirty-five minutes until set enough to unmould; extend if needed. Forty-five-minute rest includes both stages.

Unmould gently and serve with separately prepared sauce. This adaptation uses moulds instead of banana leaves and involves no fermentation.