Perfect Snacks: Bobozee (Wet Cassava Chips)
Perfect snacks wet cassava chips are made from cassava tuber (scientifically known as Manihot esculenta) which is one of the major staples in Nigeria.
This is one Nigerian Snack that has so many names. Call it Bobozee, Abacha Mmiri, akpu mmiri, yucca/cassava chips, mpataka, Air Condition or Wet Cassava Chips.
Perfect Snack Abacha Mmiri
Snack is a small portion of food or a drink or a light meal, especially eaten between regular meals.
Hunger is the main motivation behind snacking, but then again factors like location, social environment, time of day, and food availability contribute as well.
Perfect snacks on bobozee with coconut/groundnut energize you and increase your metabolism thereby helping you to work for longer hours
Popular street food boiled cassava and coconut snack (abacha mmiri na aku oyibo), is a popular snack in Igbo land (the Eastern part of Nigeria) called Abacha na Aku Oyibo.
However, it is not as popular in Lagos. However, once in a while you can stumble on a trader but you will not find it everywhere.
You can eat this snack food at all seasons but the best period is during hot weather because it cools the body, hence the nickname air condition.
Also called abacha mmiri because its best- preserved in water and taken wet. Another method of preservation is by sun-drying it to be crunchy like chips.
How Safe Is Eating Boiled Cassava and Coconut?
Some people fear that this snack is poisonous due to the presence of cyanide in cassava.
Cassava has been known to contain toxins (that are poisonous) and anti-nutrients such as cyanogen Compounds and phytates respectively.
Raw cassava contains about 160 k calorie of Energy, about 1% protein and micro-nutrient content is quite very low.
However, cooking improves the digestibility of the starch in cassava.
Research from the 80s showed that boiling cassava would only remove about 50% of the toxins and some of the phytates while further soaking will remove some more.
This means that not all the toxins would be removed through this method.
I usually wash the cassava and coconut with salt before eating it to kill off some microbes that would die in high salinity.
You can DIY (Do It Yourself) at home by buying the raw cassava and with due diligence in the processing, remove all the toxins by yourself.
Perfect Snacks: How to Make Bobozee
Ingredients
- Cassava tubers
- Water (enough to cook, soak and wash the abacha)
- Salt (optional)
Directions
- Firstly, wash the cassava tubers, cut horizontally in twos or threes depending on the length of the cassava.
- Then, peel the skin of the cassava.
- Thirdly, wash, put the cassava in the pot, and add water to cover the cassava, apply heat. Cook for about 10 to 12 minutes on medium heat till they are hard done.
- After that, remove from heat, put in the sifter to drain water, and then allow cooling completely
- Then, thinly slice the cooked cassava vertically with a knife. The slices should be about 3 mm thin.
- After slicing the cassavas, soak for about 24 hours or overnight.
- The next day, rinse several times in a generous quantity of cold water by gently rubbing on the chips with your open palms.
- Lastly, rinse till they are no longer slimy and the sour taste is no longer there. Change the water often as you rinse them.
Enjoy with coconuts, palm kernel nuts/roasted groundnuts (peanuts).
