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Togolese cuisine

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Street food in Lomé.

Togolese cuisine is the cuisine of the Togolese Republic, a country in West Africa. Staple foods in Togolese cuisine include maize, rice, millet, cassava, yam, plantain and beans.[1][2] Maize is the most commonly consumed food in the Togolese Republic.[1] Fish is a significant source of protein. People in Togo tend to eat at home, but there are also restaurants and food stalls.[3]

Foods and dishes

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Fufu (left) and palm nut soup (right).
Ablo, a maize-based food

Togolese style is often a combination of African, French, and German influences.[2][4] The cuisine has many sauces and different types of pâté, many of which are made from eggplant, tomato, spinach, and fish.[2] The cuisine combines these foods with various types of meat and vegetables to create flavorful dishes.[2] Roadside food stands sell foods such as groundnuts, omelettes, brochettes, corn-on-the-cob, and cooked prawns.[3]

Additional foods and dishes include:

  • Agouti,[3] known as "grasscutters".
  • Akpan,[5] fermented maize dessert.
  • Akume, prepared from ground maize served with a side, usually okra soup.
  • Baguette bread[3]
  • Chili peppers are often used as a spice[1]
  • Fufu is very common,[2][3] made from peeled and boiled yams which are then pounded with a pestle until reaching a dough consistency.[3] Fufu is typically accompanied with sauces.[3]
  • Goat meat.[3]
  • Koklo meme, grilled chicken with a chili sauce.[2]
  • Kokonte, a pâté made from cassava[3]
  • Pâté, a commonly consumed cornmeal cake.[4]
  • Peanuts

Southern Togolese cuisine

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Gboma déssi

Starters

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Sauces

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  • Fétri déssi: okra sauce (fétri = okra; dessi = sauce) cooked with palm oil or other oils, beef, shrimp, crab, smoked fish
Fétri déssi
  • Gboma déssi: spinach-based sauce with meat, smoked fish, or seafood
  • Adémè déssi: sauce of leafy greens (adémè)
  • Egoussi déssi: thick sauce of ground egusi seeds, gboma leaves, tomato, onion, spices, beef, akpanman (softened cow skin), seafood
Egoussi déssi
  • Gbôh-lan déssi: goat meat sauce
  • Alin déssi: mutton sauce
  • Gni-lan déssi: beef tomato sauce
  • Gni-fôti déssi: cow feet tomato sauce
  • Agbanmé déssi: light tomato sauce with beef strips or fish
  • Dékou déssi: palm nut sauce with offal, beef, fish
  • Yébéssé-si: raw spicy tomato and chili paste
  • Han-lan déssi: pork tomato sauce
  • Hô-lan déssi: smoked agouti tomato sauce (Dasyprocta)
  • Azin'g déssi: peanut paste sauce
  • Lan-moumou déssi: fish sauce with tomato
Lan-moumou déssi
  • Kanlanmi déssi: fried fish tomato sauce
  • Dowèwi déssi: sauce with fresh or smoked anchovies
Dowèwi déssi
  • Gbékui déssi: thick leafy greens sauce (gboma, amaranth, Cleome gynandra) with meat or fish [6]
  • Déssi hé: white sauce with vegetables and fish

Starches and doughs

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  • Akoumé: staple maize porridge (dough), cooked in boiling water and served as main accompaniment to various sauces. Two main methods:
éwɔ-koumé: dry maize flour stirred directly into boiling water until firm. If prepared with dried cassava flour instead, it is called konkonte (also popular in Ghana), similar to Amala of the Yoruba people.
éma-koumé: fermented wet maize dough, sieved and settled, then cooked into a smooth, lighter, whiter paste. When made with fermented cassava dough, it is agbélimá-koumé, similar to Placali from Ivory Coast.
Akoumé with adémè sauce
  • Djenkoumé: salty version, amiwɔ in Benin; maize dough cooked with salted water or meat broth, eaten plain with meat.
  • Kom (Dokounou): steamed balls of precooked, fermented whole-grain maize dough wrapped in corn husks; served with fried fish and a special roasted chili pepper (yébéssé fionfion). Kom is widely eaten in Ghana among Ewe people, known as Kenkey in the Ga people language.
Kom with shrimps
  • Ablo: steamed, slightly sweet maize pancake; also made with rice.
  • Akpan: soft, slightly tangy ball of fermented whole maize flour, steamed in banana leaves.
Akpan
  • Egblin: ball made from very fermented maize cream, steamed in cassava leaves.
  • Fufu: mash of boiled yam, cassava, plantain or taro, pounded to a light, elastic texture; eaten with clear fish or meat broth or with palm nut sauce (dékou déssi).
Fufu

Beverages

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c Evans, Dyfed Lloyd The Recipes of Africa. Dyfed Lloyd Evans. p. 138.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g "Togo (Togolese Recipes)." Healthy-life.narod.ru. Accessed July 2011.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Togolese cuisine". Oxfam. Retrieved 2013-05-16.
  4. ^ a b c d "Sharing the Secrets of Togo's Cuisine." Madison.com. Accessed July 2011.
  5. ^ "L'akpan le yaourt végétal béninois qui a du potentiel". archive.wikiwix.com. Archived from the original on 2020-07-29. Retrieved 2020-04-10.
  6. ^ Dansi, Alexandre; Adjatin, Arlette; Adoukonou-Sagbadja, Hubert; Faladé, Victoire (January 2009). "Traditional leafy vegetables in Benin: folk nomenclature, species under threat and domestication". Acta Botanica Gallica. 156 (2): 183–199. doi:10.1080/12538078.2009.10516150.
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External videos
video icon Ablotò: Preparing Ablo in Assahoun, Togo. (Cuisine togolaise)
  • Togo Food from Culinary Encyclopedia by ifood.tv
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