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Akassa

Name: Akassa
Total time: 60 min
Yield: Serves 6
Cuisine: Benin
Ingredients: 200g Cornstarch; 2 tbsp Plain yogurt; 800ml Water; A pinch Salt; To taste Banana Leaves

Side Dish

⏱ 60 min

👥 Serves 6

Difficulty ⭐⭐

Fermented corn starch worked into a paste and set in leaves — Benin's tangy staple.

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📖 The Story Behind This Dish

Akassa is one of Benin's staples: corn is soaked and fermented, ground, and strained, and the starch is worked over heat and set wrapped in leaves. Faintly sour with a smooth, slippery texture, it's eaten with fried fish, meat sauces, or chili sauce. At markets it's sold wrapped in leaves.

🌆 Where it's eaten: At a Beninese market, white corn paste wrapped in leaves is piled up and bought beside a fried-fish stall.

🥕 Ingredients (serves 6)

Cornstarch 200g
Plain yogurt 2 tbsp
Water 800ml
Salt A pinch
Banana Leaves To taste

👩‍🍳 Instructions

Dissolve the cornstarch in 300ml water, mix in the yogurt, and leave overnight at room temperature.
Bring the remaining water and salt to a boil in a pot.
Add the starch mixture while stirring and work on low until translucent and set.
Divide into portions and wrap in banana leaves.
Cool to set and serve in the leaves.

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