Magari

Magari is a clove-flavoured savoury pudding made with partially dried grated cassava, or cassava flour, cooked in coconut milk and seasoned with cracked pepper and salt. It is best eaten cold.

Magari was once a popular accompaniment for curries and grilled fish as the starch component of a meal.  Unfortunately, because the preparation can be quite lengthy, it is now sadly rarely prepared.

Origin of magari

Magari derives from garri ( also written as gari) which is cassava root, dried and ground into a flour. It is used in West-African countries such as Ghana, Sierra Leone, and Nigeria. We inherited this dish from the slaves who came from West Africa. Somehow like many of the dishes we have inherited, the original name and the dish itself got corrupted and adapted to the new environment. In this case ‘garri’ became magari and the porridge made from ‘garri’ became more like a pudding.

A quick description of how garri is made.

Garri constitutes a daily meal to some 150 million people worldwide. It is a popular West African food. It could be compared to what potato flour is to the Westerners. It needs no cooking to be eaten, as it is cooked as part of the process of preparing it; it just needs moistening. It can be eaten as a snack in cold water on a hot day or cooked in hot water to make a dough-like meal called ‘eba’ or ‘garri foto’ to eat any of the African vegetable soups.

To make ‘garri’, the cassava roots are cleaned, grated, and left to ferment for 3 to 7 days in jute bags. The fermentation process is vital, as it destroys the prussic acid toxins that are naturally present in the root. The jute bags are then pressed to get the remaining water out of the grated cassava inside. The pressed-out water can be collected and let settle; the sediment that forms is a pure starch that can be used for other cooking purposes.

The ‘garri’ is then sieved, then fried up in a dry pot, being stirred continuously until it becomes crisp. This pan-roasting drives off any remaining cyanide as gas, and kills all enzymes and microorganisms to extend storage life. Finally, it is ground, anywhere from fine to coarse.

How was magari made?

The Magari was traditionally made from the dried end bits, the stubs, of the cassava tuber after it has been grated for the making of galet, a type of local cassava biscuit. When the cassava is being prepared for grating, the short woody ‘neck’ that joins the tuber to the rest of the plant is left on. In Seychelles we call it latet mayok meaning ‘cassava head’.

The main reason why the ‘head’, is left on is because it gives a good grip when you are grating as well as allowing you not to get your fingers too close to the grater. The old style grater, shown below, was quite a dangerous piece of kitchen equipment in the hands of a non-initiated. 

The tuber is not grated completely because the end piece that attaches the tuber to the rest of the plant can be quite fibrous.  However, after the tuber has been grated, the head is trimmed and only the part that has some of the flesh still attached is kept and sun-dried.

When dry, they are placed in a large pestle and pounded into a flour. The poem below illustrates this function very well.

A Seychelloise pounding the  Cassava Stubs

The flour is then sieved to remove all the coarse bits and the sieved flour is kept.  It is with this flour that the magari was traditionally made.  Magari can in fact be made with flour obtained from the grated cassava, and this is what we have used in this recipe.  I guess that the ends were used because in the early days of settlement nothing was wasted, and this tradition has remained.

How do we do it now?

The new way to grate the cassava is to use a box grater. The best side of the box grater to use is the small, prickly side that has the rough raspy holes.

Place a flat tray on a cloth on a bench. The cloth will stop the tray from sliding during the grating process. Place your box grater on the tray and using your non-dominant hand, grab onto the top handle of the box grater and hold it tightly. Hold the pieces peeled cassava with your dominant hand and carefully move it back and forth against the holes or grating slots of the grater. As you grate, keep the grater pressed tightly against the tray.

Why bother with all this when you can buy frozen grated cassava?

You can save yourself all the hard work and purchase frozen grated cassava that is readily available in most Asian shops. Allow the frozen grated cassava to thaw and then remove it from its wrapping. It will look like a moist porridge which you will have to partially dehydrate. 

The Partial dehydration process

Wrap the grated cassava tightly in a thick cloth and place it under a very heavy object in order to extract as much moisture as possible. Place a container under the makeshift ‘press’ to collect the white milk that will ooze out. This process may last a few hours.  Once you are happy that there is no more moisture to extract, remove the cassava from the cloth, fluff it and spread it thinly on a tray allow it to air-dry for a few hours. Your flour will not be totally dehydrated. Some moisture will not harm the recipe. You now have your cassava flour and are ready to start making your magari.

Let us now make the magari

Preheat oven to 180°c

Place the cassava flour (partially-dried grated cassava) in a medium size bowl add the ground cloves, salt, cracked black pepper, ground cinnamon and ground nutmeg. Mix in thoroughly and then add the coconut milk and incorporate completely. The mix will look like a thick porridge as shown in the photo below.

Line a medium size baking tin, approximately 30 cm long, 11 cm wide and 6 cm deep, with baking paper.The baking paper is a must because the magari has a tendency to stick to the baking tin.

Transfer the magari mix to the baking tin and bake for about 90 minutes. You can test if the magari is cooked by inserting a knife into it. If it comes out clean then it is ready to be removed from the oven.

The magari will be very soft and a bit oily when you remove it from the oven. Allow it to cool for a few minutes and then lift it from the mould and allow it to cool completely. It will ‘harden’ up and feel less oily on cooling.

The magari is best enjoyed a few hours after cooking or the day after. As mentioned before, clove is a very dominant spice in the magari.

Traditional way to cook magari

Magari was traditionally cooked in a cast iron pot which has a heavy lid.  Before the cooking could start, embers were prepared from charcoal or hard wood.  A clean piece of softened banana leaf was placed in the bottom of the cast iron pot in order to stop the magari from sticking to the bottom of the pot. The mix was then poured into the pot that was then placed on a trivet over a low wood fire. The embers were placed on top of the lid so that the magari was evenly cooked, simulating an oven. The cooked magari, when removed from the pot and turned upside down, has a domed top resulting from the round bottom of the pot.

Magari dou

Magari dou is the sweet version of the magari described in this recipe which, as can be seen from description above, is a savoury dish. To make a magari dou all you need to do is to reduce the salt to ½ teaspoon, add one tablespoon of sugar. How much cloves are kept depends on your preference.

Here is your recipe for Magari

Did you make this recipe?

I hope you will enjoy cooking this dish. Please let me know how it turned out for you. If you have a different version of the recipe or have related questions, please leave your comments below.

LEAVE A COMMENT
Your email address will not be published