One of the popular foods eaten in many parts of northern Nigerian is a meal made from milled corn which is cooked into a soft dough and eaten with soup.
The Hausa call it ‘tuwo’ and among the Gbagyi, it is called Ezhe.
Typically, the preparation of this meal takes anything between 15 to 20 minutes. Water is boiled in a pan, the flour is poured in and stirred till it binds and then allowed to steam a while before it is served.
However, Ezhe, a staple meal among the Gbagyi takes up to three hours to prepare.
What makes Ezhe unique?
Mama Asibi Sule, a 50-year-old mother of six, told 21st CENTURY CHRONICLE that a lot of work goes into preparation of the meal and that stands it out from other meals.
Speaking in Gbagyi language through an interpreter, Asibi while detailing the process of making the special meal, kept saying, ‘akwai aiki fa’, meaning, a lot of work goes into making this meal.
She said, the first thing is for the husband to take out some corn from the granary in the morning and hand it to the wife.
“By tradition, a woman does take out corn from the granary herself,” she said.
When asked why this is so, she just smiled and said, “that’s our culture.” To this, her interpreter added, “Yes, no woman ever goes into the dogbu to take out corn. Only her husband can perform this duty.’’
So, what happens when the husband is not around and the wife has to cook? ‘’She waits”, he added.
Mama Asibi explained how the corn is threshed, using a mortar and pestle, after which it is triturated using the same mortar. A grinding stone is then used to grind the corn into fine smooth flour. Now, it is ready to be used for Ezhe.
When asked why she has to go through that process rather than use a milling machine, she said “the food is tastier when ground with a milling stone because then, one avoids contamination from the machines, or the powder getting mixed with other things that may have been ground in the machine earlier.”
Cooking
Just as proper care was given to processing the corn before making this food, cooking it is another ball game. There are different stages of cooking the Ezhe.
Mama Asibi said water is placed in a sizable pot, depending on the size of the family; the pot could be medium or big, the ground flour is then sieved and a little amount is made into a cold semi thick paste, known as talge and kept by the side.
Next stage, water is placed on the fire, and liquid potassium is distilled from ash using water and added to the water.
“The woman making the meal would taste the water to ascertain the appropriate amount of the potassium in the water. The potassium is added for preservative purposes.”
Continuing, she said when the water has reached boiling point, the already prepared cold paste is gradually added to the boiling water, while stirring consistently with an Oba, the traditional stirring stick for preparing those kinds of meals and when the colour of the paste changes into a bright yellow, it is time to leave it to cook on slow fire.
“After boiling into a thick paste, more flour is added to get a thicker form, and then water is added to it and allowed to steam. Then when it is well cooked, it is time to take it off the fire and let it cool.
“When it has cooled, it is then cut into little mounds and served. This is the meal for the first day. The remaining is left in the pot and warmed daily. From this day, until two weeks, the woman does not go through this process of cooking again.
“This food would be eaten either with soup or simply cut into little bits and soaked in water, and eaten like soaked garri for upto two weeks,” she explained.
Mr Awoyi, even though interpreting for Mama Asibi, was quite knowledgeable about the rigorous process of preparing the Ezhe. So, he was asked if he could cook. And he said, ‘’No, only women can cook this particular meal’’.
At this point, Mama Asibi again added, ‘’Akwai Aiki fa’’- there’s a lot of work! So, does this mean that the men are lazy and can only bring out the corn from the granary? Awoyi again, answered without asking Mama, “no, we can help them pound yam if they are preparing pounded yam, but this Tuwo, no,” he said with a giggle.
21st CENTURY CHRONICLE gathered that even though the Gbagyi take this food as their special delicacy, it is an everyday meal in traditional Gbagyi homes and also served to visitors. They use special soups to eat it on the first day, and with fish on subsequent days. Some of the special soups are Agbenyi, Agunlala, Takwa and Nkunlo.
This is a long-standing cultural meal, according to Awoyi. And so, women take it seriously to teach their girl children how to cook it properly. Hephzibah Anyidatadusan, Awoyi’s daughter is 3 years old, and was seen helping her mum to bring water from a nearby tap, when 21st CENTURY CHRONICLE visited the old soldier quarters in Sabon Gari area of Bwari.
