[FOODIES CORNER] How to make Agidi Jollof from scratch (VIDEO)

If you completed your primary and secondary school education in Nigeria and did not taste Agidi Jollof, you should go back and complete your primary and secondary education.

Without the Agidi Jollof experience, those two are incomplete!

Agidi Jollof Ingredients

The following ingredients gave me about 7 wraps of Agidi Jollof

• 3 cups dry white corn
• 12 small chewable soft bones (I used ribs)
• 1-2 teaspoons Nigerian curry powder
• 1-2 teaspoons ground dry cayenne pepper
• 500 mls tomato stew
• 1 teaspoon thyme
• 1 red onion
• 2 small seasoning cubes (beef flavour)
• Salt (to taste)

For wrapping the Agidi Jollof you need one of the following:

• Uma leaves (thaumatococuus daniellii).
• Banana leaves.
• Glass bowls

Notes on the Agidi Jollof Ingredients

1. The tomato stew is a well fried stew with all the tangy taste gone.
2. The corn must be dry.
3. Because this is Agidi Jollof that will have added stew, you can get away with using yellow corn because red stew which will mask the yellow colour of the agidi will be added to the Agidi Jollof anyway.

Directions for making Agidi Jollof

This procedure is best seen in a video so watch the video below to see it in full colour. But if you can’t watch the video, keep reading.

First, prepare the Agidi Jollof stew

1. Put the cleaned soft bones in a pot.
2. Add the onion (cut into chunks), seasoning cubes and thyme.
3. Pour water to cover it and start cooking.
4. When the meat is soft, take them out and put in another pot.
5. Take away the chunks of onion then sieve the stock into the meat so that no tiny pieces of ingredients will ruin the Agidi Jollof mold.
6. Add the tomato stew. Remember this is a well fried tomato stew not tomato puree.
7. Add curry powder, cayenne pepper and salt. Cover and once it gets a good simmer, it’s done. Set it aside.

Prepare the Agidi

1. Rinse the corn very well, put in a pot and pour water to cover the corn.
2. Set it on the stove, cover and start cooking on medium heat.
3. As soon as it boils very well, take it off the stove. See video below.
4. Pour in a sieve and rinse with cool water.
5. Blend the corn till smooth.
6. Then sieve and rinse with a chiffon cloth, that cloth for sieving akamu.
7. When done, cover the bowl and leave it to settle.
8. When the corn starch completely separates from the water, slowly decant the water into a container.
9. Scoop the corn starch into a pot, add the decanted water bit by bit, stirring at the same time till you get the consistency of evaporated milk.
   

   Note: You may need to add some hot water during the process so boil some water and set aside.

10. Set the pot on the stove on medium heat and start stirring none stop. If you stop stirring, lumps will form, you don’t want that.
11. Once it starts to thicken, stir even more continuously till the agidi is well cooked.
    

    Note: To confirm that it is well cooked, scoop a bit of agidi into a bowl of cold water (water from the fridge is good for this), when the agidi sets after some time, it is done.

Mix the Agidi and Agidi Stew

1. Once you are happy with the consistency and you have confirmed that the agidi is done, scoop a small quantity of the stew (only the stew, no bones) into the agidi. Mix very well. Add more, mix, till you get an overall even colour as shown in the video below.
2. Do not be tempted to add too much stew because if too much, the stew will prevent the agidi mold from forming.
3. When happy, make a cone with one leaf and scoop some Agidi Jollof into the cone, about half the quantity you want in that wrap.
4. Add one or two soft bones into the wrap.
5. Scoop more agidi jollof into the wrap to completely cover the bone.
6. Wrap as shown in the video below and set aside for a few minutes till the mold forms.

Agidi Jollof is best served hot so as soon as the mold has formed, serve with a chilled drink.