PROMOTE YOUR FAVOURITE AFRICAN TRADITIONAL DESSERT CONTEST ENTRY AT STEEMFOODS BY @alexanderpeace

Good day amazing people of steemfoods. I want to thank the admin of this wonderful community and at @ngoenyi for this opportunity to promote my favorite African traditional dessert. Let's start with a little foundation about African desserts.

A dessert is a sweet confection served as the last course of a meal. This contest is streamlined to Africa, so am going to be telling us a little about Africa. Africa is one of the continents in the world and is made of up of 54 countries which includes Algeria, Egypt, Chad, Cameroon, Nigeria and etc. Nigeria is one of the countries in Africa and I am a citizen of Nigeria. Many African countries have their special traditional dessert which they relish. Some of them includes;
*South African Malva Pudding
*Ghoriba Bahla otherwise known as Moroccan Shortbread Cookies with Almonds and Sesame
*Melt-in-Mouth Butter Cookies (Egyptian Ghorayeba)
*West African Lime Cake perculiar to Africa middle east
*Crunchies; South African Immaculate Bites
*Umm Ali also known as Egyptian bread pudding
*Chebakia (Moroccan Sesame Cookies) and etc to mention but a few.

In Nigeria, we have our own traditional desserts peculiar to the different parts of the country. Nigeria is divided into four regions; the Eastern, Northern, Southern and Western region. Nigeria has three major ethnic groups which are Igbo, hausa, and yoruba and other minor ethnic groups. These ethnic groups have their special traditional desserts perculiar to them. Examples of these traditional desserts includes;
*Puff puff
*Chin-chin
*Coconut candy
*Akara known as bean cake, this is perculiar to the Igbo tribes.
*Meat pie
*Donkwa; this dessert is perculiar to the hausa tribe of Nigeria.
*Boiled or roasted maize and coconut
*Plantain chips
*Kpekere; which is perculiar to the yoruba tribe.
*Tapioca snacks
*Kuli kuli and etc.

Having laid this foundation, am going to be sharing with us my favorite African traditional dessert which is tapioca snacks. Tapioca snacks is perculiar to the Igbo tribe of Nigeria.

Ingredients for making tapioca snacks.

Tapioca snacks is made from cassava tubers and coconut.

Cassava tubers I got from the farm

Coconut fruit

Cassava is an edible root vegetable. It's a tuber crop which when processed can be used to make cassava flour (garri), fufu, tapioca, laundry starch and even alcoholic beverage can be derived from it. Cassava was originally a crop of America. It was introduced into the southern part of my country during the slave trade period in early sixteenth century. It gained popularity in the nineteenth century and since then has become a major food produce in my country.
Cassava is a good source of carbohydrate, vitamin C and also dietary fiber.

Processes for making Tapioca snacks.

*Get cassava tubers.
Cassava tubers are very rare to see in general markets around the city but they can be seen in village markets or otherwise called bush markets, so I had to go harvest some cassava roots from a friend's farm for the purpose of this contest. It's easy to harvest cassava tubers. Simple hold the cassava stem firmly and pull with your strength. The tubers will come out of the ground with the stem. It was easier for me because it rained in the morning, hence the ground was wet. So I pulled out three stems of cassava and each had multiple tubers, So I had a hand full of cassava tubers from the farm.

*Peel of the bark of the cassava tubers with a knife, to reveal the white part of the tuber.

*Cut the tubers into big chunks and wash in water, then put then in a tray.

*cut the big chunks into tiny slender pieces.
*Wash again in water and put them into a cooking pot

*Add water to the cooking pot, cover the pot and boil for about 25-30minutes.

*Pour out into a Sieve and allow to cool
*Then put the cooked cassava (tapioca) slices into a bowl and add water to it. Allow to stay in water overnight.

*Wash again, the next day. When I was washing it, I noticed it had foamed and had a slimy feel. So I Washed it until the foam and the slimy feeling disappeared.