Pondu

The national greens of both Congos, young cassava leaves pounded to a coarse paste in a wooden mortar and simmered slowly with palm oil, smoked fish, and groundnut paste

Origin: Kinshasa and the Congo Basin

From the journey of Cassava.

Pondu in Lingala, saka-saka across much of Central Africa, is what a Congolese cook living abroad misses first. Young cassava leaves are pounded in a tall wooden mortar until they collapse into a coarse dark paste, then simmered for a long time with red palm oil, onion, and usually smoked fish or groundnut paste, until the whole thing turns thick, dense, and deeply savoury. It is the other half of the cassava plant, and nutritionally it is the more important half. The root is very nearly pure starch and will not sustain anybody on its own; a diet resting too heavily on it produces real deficiency disease. The leaves carry a genuinely useful quantity of protein, several times what the root offers, along with iron and vitamins. That the Congo basin eats both halves of the same plant at the same meal, the leaf beside the chikwangue or the fufu, is a piece of nutritional good sense arrived at long before anyone could have explained why it worked. The long cooking is not about texture. Cassava leaves carry the same cyanogenic compounds as the root, and the pounding and the prolonged boiling are doing the same job that grating and pressing do on the other side of the plant. An hour is a minimum and Congolese cooks routinely go well beyond it. The Democratic Republic of the Congo is the second largest cassava producer in the world and cassava supplies a larger share of the national diet there than any single crop does in almost any other country. Pondu is eaten several times a week in a great many households, with rice, with fufu, or with chikwangue, and it is on the table at every wedding and every funeral.

Ingredients

Greens

500 g frozen pounded cassava leaves (pondu / saka-saka), thawed
1.2 litres water

Aromatics

1 large onion, finely chopped
4 cloves garlic, crushed
2 leeks, finely sliced

Fat

150 ml red palm oil

Protein

200 g smoked fish (mackerel or catfish), skin and bones removed, flaked

Enrichment

3 tbsp smooth peanut butter or groundnut paste
1 aubergine, diced small, optional

Seasoning

1 hot chilli, whole and pricked
1.5 tsp fine salt, or to taste

Method

Put the thawed pounded cassava leaves in a large heavy pan with the water and bring to the boil. Reduce to a steady simmer, half cover, and cook for forty-five minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add the onion, garlic, and leeks and continue to simmer for a further twenty minutes.
Stir in the palm oil, the flaked smoked fish, and the aubergine if using. Simmer for another fifteen minutes.
Loosen the peanut butter with a ladleful of the hot cooking liquid until smooth, then stir it back into the pan. Add the whole chilli.
Simmer uncovered for a final ten to fifteen minutes, stirring now and then, until the mixture is thick, dark, and holds its shape on a spoon and the oil has begun to separate at the edges.
Remove the chilli, season with salt, and serve hot with rice, fufu, chikwangue, or plantain.

Notes

Use commercially prepared pounded cassava leaves. They are sold frozen or in jars by African grocers, are already correctly processed, and are what the dish is made from in practice. Fresh cassava leaves must never be eaten raw or lightly cooked. They contain the same cyanogenic compounds as the root, and they require thorough pounding and prolonged boiling. Groundnut paste is standard in some households and absent in others. The version with it is richer and slightly sweeter; the version without is cleaner and greener. Mozambican matapa is the same leaf treated with coconut milk and cashews instead of palm oil and groundnut, and the two dishes side by side show the whole difference between the Atlantic and the Indian Ocean coasts of Africa.

The Gastrographer

Name: Pondu
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 1 h 30 min
Total time: 1 h 50 min
Yield: 6
Cuisine: Kinshasa and the Congo Basin
Ingredients: 500 g frozen pounded cassava leaves (pondu / saka-saka), thawed; 1.2 litres water; 1 large onion, finely chopped; 4 cloves garlic, crushed; 2 leeks, finely sliced; 150 ml red palm oil; 200 g smoked fish (mackerel or catfish), skin and bones removed, flaked; 3 tbsp smooth peanut butter or groundnut paste; 1 aubergine, diced small, optional; 1 hot chilli, whole and pricked; 1.5 tsp fine salt, or to taste

Mapping Culinary History

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Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control