Photos: How to Make Garri (Cassava Grits) from Scratch - Part 3 (Conclusion)

Buy your garri here

This post concludes the garri making (cassava processing) trilogy. The first post introduced it. In the first post, I wrote about peeling and washing the cassava roots. The second post highlighted the grating and pressing processes. In this last part, I shall explain how we get the garri, the end product of cassava processing as seen in this picture. 

The picture you see here is what the product looks like after pressing, sifting and drying/frying. So, the next shows it as we purchase it from the market wherever garri is eaten.

 Out of the press. the dried garri looks like this (picture above) as it's still in the bag. Many people leave the garri to drain overnight in the drain. The press is intermittently re-tightened to ensure easy and proper draining of the cassava juice, which I said is toxic for human or animal consumption.

 This is the cassava dough or what would you call it. Pardon my nomenclature, I don't know these things from the technical perspective. Look it up online, as we do these days :). Goody.  Here we go. Below is an up close picture of a lump of the cassava after pressing.

Pressed cassava

Pressed cassava in a basin or container

 Now you can even conclude the post on your own. After pressing, the next step is to sift the cassava in a sieve as pictured above. Again, what do you call it in your native language. We call it nyo or mkpasa. Hehe...it's a sieve or mesh. It looks like a gauze and made of metal. It's usually durable this way. Some of the mesh are made of twig or other locally sourced materials. 

Cassava mesh

 Alright! Use the mesh to separate the cassava flour from the chaff. See what comes out from the mesh. It's a very good way of ensuring that one eats healthy food and not livestock feed.

Cassava chaff

Cassava chaff (up close)

Cassava flour after sifting

Cassava flour

 Cassava powder, but I would rather call it cassava flour, is the product of sifting the pressed cassava. It contains fine cassava particles ready for frying.

Firewood (very important oh!)

More firewood

Frying pan (locally made)

Gather your firewood. We need strong and dry firewood to make the work easy. Otherwise, wet firewood would cause eye irritation during the last part of the processing. The next step after sifting is to pour some portion of the garri flour into the fired pot or pan as seen below. Use the gourd scoop to fry the garri. This ensures that the garri doesn't lump up. The gourd (back of the gourd plant) is locally sourced from the market. There is the long stick used to turn the garri when it's very hot as seen in the next few pictures below.

Garri flour being fried/drying in a pan

The garri gourd (crucial in frying garri)

The garri long stick

 I'm either making this look tedious or easy. My idea is that it's both. Hia! It's not easy to make garri. It's a tedium that takes from two to three days depending on the processor's timing. As I said in the last post, it's better to let the garri drain or dry slowly in order to allow for proper breaking down of enzymes. What am I talking about? The garri processing and timing determines the type of garri that one would make.

 Finally, we have garri as seen in the picture above. Many people prefer to bag their garri after allowing it to cool. Cooling allows the processed cassava to sit in without lumping up. You don't want your garri in lumped grains. Garri too, likes to cuddle :). This is usually what garri looks like in a bag ready to be shipped off to ala bekee/obodo oyibo (abroad). If you want to engage in garri business, it might be helpful to know what went into its processing.

Garri basin (with measures)

 Garri is a staple food in much of West Africa. In Nigeria, it's used in making eba. I like to take it (cassava grits) in cold water. I would add sugar and milk to make it tummy yummy. But most people would make eba and enjoy a meal of various kinds of local soups. The yellow measure, in the picture above, is about 400 Naira and the red one is half the price.


 The picture here is a treated garri. Treating means you have added palm oil and it's usually more expensive than the one without oil. It's called red garri, while the other is called white garri in Nigeria especially in Igboland (South East Nigeria). Anyway, if you need well processed garri, ask the local people in the market. Let me now enumerate the garri processing steps in titbits.

1. Go to the farm and harvest the cassava
2. Peel cassava roots 
3. Wash the cassava
4. Grate and bag
5. Press
6. Fry

Operation Feed the Nation (OFN) saved many families during the austerity measures in Nigeria. Times are tough but garri will always be among us. Like water, garri no get enemy. Erm...till your doctor says so. Most of this cassava processing was done in my home. Thank you to those who made it possible. And thanks for reading my blog.