COPPERAkpan recipe
A maize starch fermented for two days into a tangy yogurt-like cream, served ice cold with sugar and condensed milk.
Ingredients
- 500 g white maize
- 1500 ml water
- 100 g sugar
- 100 ml sweetened condensed milk
- 2 stick lemongrass
- 200 g ice
How to make Akpan
- Rinse 500 g of white maize, cover it generously with water and leave it to soak 24 hours until the grains are soft.
- Drain and grind the maize very fine with a little water into a smooth paste.
- Cover the paste and leave it 48 hours at room temperature; the sourness it develops is the whole point of akpan and there is no shortcut for it.
- Slacken the fermented paste with 1 litre of water and strain it through a cloth, keeping the milky liquid and discarding the bran.
- Let the starch settle for 3 hours, pour off the clear water on top and keep the thick starch underneath.
- Cook a third of that starch with 1500 ml of water and 2 bruised lemongrass stalks, stirring constantly for 5 minutes until it is a smooth glossy gruel, then fish out the lemongrass.
- Off the heat, beat the hot gruel back into the raw fermented starch until the mix is thick, shiny and free of lumps.
- Chill at least 4 hours, until it sets to the texture of drinking yogurt.
- Serve very cold, stirring in 100 g of sugar, a long drizzle of sweetened condensed milk and a handful of ice.
What is Akpan?
Akpan is a traditional dish from Togo, and takes about 3 days and 8 hours from start to finish. It is built around white maize and sweetened condensed milk. The recipe below uses 6 ingredients and is written out step by step.
How long does Akpan take?
At 4770 minutes it is slower than 99% of the 586 dishes in Copper's atlas. The method runs to 9 steps, the longest being 5 minutes.
Any tips for making Akpan?
Give the ground maize paste its full 48 hours of fermentation at room temperature; the sourness it develops is the whole point of akpan.
How Akpan compares
At 3 days and 8 hours, Akpan is among the 10 longest of the 586 dishes Copper documents. Hard to find elsewhere: white maize (1), sweetened condensed milk (1) and ice (1).
Cooked with the same thing elsewhere
Other traditional dishes built on lemongrass, from other countries.
- Satay 🇧🇳 Brunei Darussalam
- Rendang 🇮🇩 Indonesia
- Fish amok 🇰🇭 Cambodia
- Nom banh chok 🇰🇭 Cambodia
- Khao piak sen 🇱🇦 Laos
- Mohinga 🇲🇲 Myanmar
Copper documents Togo alongside 197 other countries. Every recipe is free to read, with the full ingredient list and every step.