How to make pap with cornmeal or cornflour is an easy way to make pap instead of using fresh corn. The process is similar except the cornmeal or cornflour is in powder form. The process is to soak the cornmeal or cornflour with water and leave it to ferment for a few days, blend and sieve.
If you’re using cornflour you don’t need to sieve because it has a fine texture than cornmeal. The cornmeal is in different colors; white and yellow. The color doesn’t affect the process, if you use yellow you get yellow pap (ogi/eko).
Pap (eko/ogi) can be eaten with akara, moimoi, beans, stew or soup, and many more. Pap is a very common food in West African and it is one of my comfort food, I love it and can eat it all day every day…lol.
If you want to make dried cornflour yourself, just dry up the corn/maize and grind it into powder. If you want to use the corn, to make pap, soak the corn/maize with water (make sure it covers the corn) for about 5-7 days making sure you change the water perhaps every other day then grind then sieve as mentioned in the cornmeal process.
You might want to try these recipes for the pap side;
Nigerian Akara: Three ways (Beans Cake or beans Fritters)
Moimoi Rollup (Baked Beans Pudding Roulade)
How to Peel Beans with a Blender
Efo Riro (Nigerian Spinach Stew)
- Pap
- Fresh ginger (peeled);optional
- Enough Water to cover
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In a bowl, add the cornmeal/cornflour and enough water to cover, and more to allow the cornmeal to have enough water when it rises. Leave the soaked cornmeal for 48 hours or more, make sure you change the water, and add another cold water to cover it.
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Drain the water and add the soaked cornmeal to a blender and a small piece of fresh ginger depending on the quantity of the cornmeal, you might need to add water to facilitate the blending, blend the mixture until smooth. If you're using cornflour you can skip this step.
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Place a strainer/sieve then place a cheesecloth or muslin cloth into the sieve (you can use just cheesecloth or just a fine mesh to sieve) then pour the cornmeal/cornflour into it to sieve it, add a small quantity of water if you need to, and use the back of a spoon to press it through. Continue until you’re done. If you have a very fine cornmeal/cornflour you don't need to sieve after blending.
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Pour the strained cornmeal into a clean bowl and leave for a few hours or overnight to settle down (to separate water from the cornmeal), drain some of the water that is on the pap if you have more than enough to cover it,
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To prepare the pap(Eko)
For Pap (Eko): Scoop the quantity of pap(ogi) you want and mix with a small quantity of water (from the settled pap) and stir until it dissolves and semi-liquid pap. Bring a small quantity of water (about 1/4-1/2 cup depending on the quantity of the pap) to a rolling boil then add the dissolved pap into the boiling water.
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Use a ladle or rolling stick to stir continue to stir until you have a thickened texture and the pap is cooked about 5 minutes or more.
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Pour into a cup, or ramekins and cover with a fling (make sure it touches the cooked pap to prevent having a pap skin over it) and allow to cool down completely.
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Serve with your favorite side.
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To make Pap porridge (ogi): Bring about 1-2 cups of water to a boil, you can boil more water depending on the quantity of pap you're making, dissolve settled pap as you did for pap (eko) not too watery. Pour boiled water(be careful with hot water) into the dissolved pap and you will notice it thickens up when it rises and thickens stop pouring water and stir with a spoon. Serve with your favorite side, akara, moimoi, beans, and so on.
If you mistakenly pour more water than you intended and you have watery pap, don't fret, place the bowl inside the hot water on the stove and stir until it thickens or pour the watery pap into a clean pot and place on the stove, stir continuously until thickens. Make sure it is not too thick so it doesn't turn into solid pap (eko).
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Please l want to know whether is the same way we prepared corn dough. We soak the maize for 3dsys
Yes, Diana.
Wow! Thisbis faster and the way you serve your pap is so different, I love it Thanks for sharing.
You’re welcome, Bimpe! Hope you will try it.