Today’s blog post is on how to make pap from scratch. Pap can be made from corn(white corn or yellow corn), millet, Guinea corn and sorghum.

It is called Akamu in Igbo language, the Yorubas call it ogi. But sorghum pap which is red in colour is called Ogi Baba in Yoruba language,while the Hausas call it koko.

In this post , I will be using the different names of pap i.e Akamu, Ogi and Koko interchangeably.

In Nigeria, Pap is a staple food commonly eaten for breakfast alone or in combination with other foods such as;

• Pap and Milk with Sugar
• Akamu and Akara
• Ogi and Moi Moi
• Akamu and fried plantains (dodo)
• Pap and honey
• And many more

Basically, Akamu is fermented corn, Guinea corn or sorghum that has undergone different stages of preparations to make it smooth, healthy and and a popular choice.

In many Nigerian homes, the common food fed to babies is Ogi and for decades  Nigerians have been using Akamu to wean babies of breast milk.

This is because it is light and can be easily digested. And this is the reason why many fitness enthusiasts embrace and include pap in their diet nowadays.

But the effectiveness of eating pap for weight loss is heavily dependent on the other foods you combine with it. This means that just as Akamu is good for weight loss, Akamu can also help you gain weight or make you fat.

In this recipe, I will not only show you how to make Akamu from scratch using White corn, I will also be sharing with methods of how to preserve akamu without fridge.

Infact, you can start your own Akamu business using this method . Let me tell you, Akamu business is very lucrative in Nigeria and a lot of Nigerians earn a living from selling it either raw or cooked.

INGREDIENTS

• White Corn
• Water

PREPARATION TIME : 4DAYS

PROCEDURE:

• Pour white corn into a bowl
• Remove any dirt or stone
• Transfer the clean corn into a big bowl
• Add a lot of water till it covers the corn
• Cover it, let it ferment and soften for 3 days
• After 3 days open the fermented corn – at this point you will perceive a peculiar smell don’t worry, that is normal because the corn has been fermented
• Drain the corn water and make sure you rinse the corn at least twice
• After this, blend the corn to a paste

Make sure the corn paste is smooth enough to easily sieve out the pap. Also make sure the corn paste is not too smooth that the shaft can be easily removed.

• Put a pap sieve into a bowl, you can also use cheese cloth
• Put some of the corn paste into the sieve
• Use your fingers to lightly spread the corn paste in the sieve
• Add water move your hands in a circular motion so that the water can help separate the pap from the shaft
• Add water repeatedly until it remains only the shaft in the sieve
• Remove the shaft and repeat the process until all the corn paste have been sieved
• Set the corn shaft aside

People into poultry business mix this corn shaft with chicken feed.

• Cover the bowl where the pap was sieved into for 4-5hours
• Covering the sieved corn paste is necessary so that the pap can settle
• After 4-5hours you will notice a clear liquid at the top while the corn paste has settled to the bottom
• Get a big bowl and decant the clear liquid into it
• That clear liquid is called Omidun Or Omikan.

Omidun is commonly used by the Yorubas to cook healthy herbal drinks like “agbo” and. “adoyo” . For Adoyo recipe CLICK HERE

• The white paste settled at the bottom  is Akamu.

You can cook it and get you desired Pap consistency which you can pair with Akara, Moi-Moi , dodo(fried plantains) and many more

But raw pap sold in NIgeria always comes with thick consistency i.e thicker than the consistency achieved so far. Thick raw pap also called dry pap and it is preferred by customers.

This is because it gives customers their money’s worth and it is easy to store and preserve. Watery pap spoils easily because of its high water content.

The epileptic power supply in Nigeria does not help matters both for the pap vendor and the consumer and any pap seller who sells watery raw Ogi will lose money because in the absence of electricity the raw pap will spoil in at most 2days.

Remember pap is fermented corn paste so storing it in a warm environment will make the pap continue to ferment to the point where growths will begin to appear on it thereby making it unhealthy to eat.

This is the reason why it should be stored in a refrigerator but if you do not have a refrigerator I will teach you how to preserve your Akamu without fridge.

So if you have watery pap and you do not have electricity to power your refrigerator to keep it cool and stop the fermentation process, this is what you should do;

HOW TO PRESERVE AKAMU WITHOUT FRIDGE – METHOD 1

• Get a container with lid- it could be plastic or stainless steel – but make sure the container has a cover that fits properly
• Pour the pap into the container and cover it.
• Pour cool water into a bigger bowl
• Put the pap container into the water in the bigger bowl and let it sit in it
• Change the water everyday, this will help you preserve your water pap for about 2-5days.

DRY PAP RECIPE – HOW TO REMOVE EXCESS WATER FROM WATERY RAW PAP.

If you have followed the steps above at this point you have a watery pap, you should follow the steps I am about to outline to remove the excess liquid from your pap to make it thicker, drier and easy to preserve.

• Get a cheesecloth
• Put the cheese cloth over bowl
• Make sure the cheese cloth does not have any hole
• Pour the water pap into the cheese cloth
• Tie the cheesecloth
• Put the cheese cloth in your kitchen sink or in a basket which will be put in a big bowl
• Place a nylon over the cheese cloth
• Put a heavy object on the nylon

For the heavy object I use heavy stone but you can use something else as long as it is heavy

• Leave the heavy object in the cheese cloth for 3-4hours or longer depending on dry you want the pap.

After this is done your pap will thicker with less liquid content and also easy to preserve.

Simply put your Ogi in your fridge to preserve it. You can also keep it frozen to make it last longer.

But if you don’t have a refrigerator to preserve your thick raw Akamu this is what you should do.

HOW TO PRESERVE AKAMU WITHOUT FRIDGE – METHOD 2

• Get a container with lid- it could be plastic or stainless steel – but make sure the container has a cover that fits properly
• Pour the pap into the container and cover it.
• Pour cool water on the pap
• DO NOT MIX
• Just let the water settle the pap like this
• Change the water everyday, this will help you preserve your water pap for about 14-28days.

Making akamu from scratch is time consuming but if you follow all the steps I outlined in this post the result will be very rewarding. WATCH VIDEO RECIPE HERE

You can even start your own Akamu business using this method. Let me tell you, Akamu business is very lucrative in Nigeria.