To recipe

A firm sorghum or millet paste beaten with a stick until smooth and elastic, eaten with the hand and dipped in a salty okra sauce, never sweetened.

55 minutesmedium8 ingredients

Ingredients

• 400 g sorghum flour
• 1500 ml water
• 300 g okra
• 30 g soumbala
• 1 onion
• 100 g dried fish
• 2 tbsp shea butter
• 1 tsp salt

How to make To

1. Mix 400 g of the 400 g of sorghum flour with 1500 ml of cold water to make a thin slurry and set it aside.
2. Bring 1.2 litres of water to a rolling boil in a heavy pot, stir in the slurry and let it thicken 5 minutes.
3. Rain in the remaining 400 g of flour a handful at a time, beating hard and continuously with a long wooden stick.
4. Keep beating 10 to 15 minutes against the side of the pot until the paste is smooth, stiff and pulls away cleanly; this is physical work and the usual point of failure, lumps mean you stopped beating.
5. Cover and steam 5 minutes on very low heat, then shape the tô into balls with a wet wooden spoon. Do not add sugar, milk or salt to the paste.
6. For the sauce, fry 1 chopped onion in 2 tablespoons of shea butter, add 100 g of crumbled dried fish and 30 g of soumbala and cook 5 minutes.
7. Add 1500 ml of water and 300 g of sliced okra, simmer 20 minutes on low heat until the sauce is slimy and thick, and salt with 1 teaspoon of salt only at the end.
8. Serve the balls of tô on a shared platter with the okra sauce alongside, and eat by pinching off pieces with the right hand.

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