Chikwangue

The dense sour cassava loaf of the Congo, roots retted in water for days until they soften, then pounded smooth, wrapped tightly in leaves, and boiled twice

Origin: Kinshasa and the Congo Basin

From the journey of Cassava.

Chikwangue, kwanga in Kikongo, is the bread of the Congo basin: a firm, sour, faintly elastic cassava loaf, wrapped in leaves and sold by the sackful in every market from Kinshasa to Brazzaville. It keeps for several days without refrigeration in equatorial heat, which is precisely why it exists, and it travels from the growing villages into the cities by river boat and lorry as a finished product. The Congo processes cassava differently from West Africa, and the difference is the whole character of the food. West Africa grates the root; the Congo rets it. Whole peeled roots are left to soak in a river, a stream, or a pit for three to five days until they soften and sour, which ferments and detoxifies them at once and gives the finished loaf its distinctive tang. The softened mass is then kneaded, sieved of fibre, pounded, wrapped, and boiled. The leaves are not packaging in the incidental sense. Chikwangue is wrapped in Marantaceae leaves, the same broad forest leaves used across Central Africa for cooking parcels, and the loaf is boiled inside them, which both shapes it and lends a faint green note. Banana leaf is the usual substitute and is what the diaspora uses. It is eaten as bread rather than as a dish: torn off in pieces alongside pondu, grilled fish, moambe chicken, or a simple pepper sauce. The pairing with pondu is the everyday Congolese meal and, as it happens, a nutritionally sound one, since the leaf carries the protein that the root does not.

Ingredients

Root

  • 2 kg sweet cassava, whole roots

Seasoning

  • 1 tsp fine salt, optional

Wrapping

  • 12 large banana leaves, or Marantaceae leaves, cut into 30 cm squares
  • 1 kitchen string or strips of leaf rib, for tying

Method

  1. Peel the cassava, taking off both the brown skin and the thick pinkish layer beneath, and cut the roots into lengths of about 10 cm. Put them in a large container, cover completely with cold water, and leave in a warm place for three to four days.
  2. After three or four days the roots should be soft enough to crush between finger and thumb. Drain them and rinse briefly under cold water.
  3. Break the softened roots apart with your hands and pull out every trace of the woody central fibre.
  4. Work the mass to a smooth paste, either by pounding in a mortar or by pressing it in batches through a coarse sieve. Knead in the salt if using.
  5. Warm the banana leaves briefly over a flame or in boiling water until they turn glossy and pliable, then wipe them dry.
  6. Divide the paste into eight. Shape each portion into a cylinder about 15 cm long, set it on a leaf, roll it up tightly, fold the ends over, and tie firmly with string. Wrap each parcel a second time in another leaf and tie again.
  7. Lower the parcels into a large pan of boiling water and boil, covered, for forty-five minutes. Lift them out and let them cool completely, which takes about two hours.
  8. Return the cooled parcels to fresh boiling water and boil for a further forty-five minutes. Cool again before unwrapping.
  9. Serve at room temperature, unwrapped and sliced or torn, alongside pondu, grilled fish, or moambe chicken.

Notes

Use sweet cassava. The retting is a genuine detoxification step and is what makes bitter varieties safe in the Congo, but bitter roots are not sold in Western shops and should not be attempted on the strength of a written method. Frozen cassava can be retted in the same way and saves the peeling, though it softens rather faster; check it after two days. Ready-made chikwangue is sold vacuum packed or frozen in African grocers under that name or as kwanga, and is entirely respectable. The sourness is the marker of a good loaf. A bland chikwangue has been under-retted, and the retting is the only step that produces it.

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