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It's your favorite girl @debbie-ese 😍
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During the holiday period, one food that is a must-have in the home is pap for the kids. Pap is an easy to prepare and a breakfast that can be prepared in no time. It is healthy and highly nutritional for the kids and adults. My kid officially begins his holiday today even though he had finished his examinations since last week Friday. My nephew is going to be spending his holiday with us as well, so this means I have to get foods that can be easily made for breakfast handy and pap is one of them.
Pap, in this part of the world is slowly introduced to children when they are about to stop breastfeeding before the introduction of other foods as they grow. This is an indication of the healthy benefits to children and of course adults. The level of its nutrition can also be boosted by adding other things such as milk, honey, garlic, ginger and the likes. This meal maintains its nutritional values because it doesn't undergo excessive processing, hence it retains all the nutrients.
Pap is also called akamu, koko or ogi depending on the region where you reside in Nigeria. To digress a bit, when I visited Osun State, Nigeria, there is a unique chant that pap sellers use to advertise their goods when they are hawking as early as 6am or thereabout. In English, it simply means 'your gracious pap is here' (Ògì oloórè...). Note these paps are mostly raw. Though there are other vendors that sell already prepared ones mostly with akara (bean cake).
Moving forward, I bought some millet so that I can process my pap at home. Just like every other foodstuffs it is more healthy when it is home-made. You're sure that is not mixed with other things and it is processed under an hygienic conditions. Apart from that i wanted it in large quantities, so my best option was to prepare it at home. Oftentimes, the people who sell pap in the market or on the streets mix it with other things in order to make more profits
I opted for millet to make my pap. Sometimes I mix some corn with it but this time it is only millet that i will be using. Pap can also be made from only corn (yellow or white). Either millet or corn pap are both nutritious it only depends on your preference. I bought three mudu (pronounced: moo-doo) at the rate of #1200 ($0.7$) each.
How to process
The first step is very important. If you don't get this first step right you may not get a perfect pap.
Soak the millet overnight to make sure it is very soft so as to make grinding easy. This also makes it easy to get the juice out fully when seiving.Next, wash the millet thoroughly and get rid of the dirts, stones and shafts. Then you add your already washed and peeled ginger.
Next,grind at a grinding machine or if you have an industrial blender you can blend at home.
Afterwards, sieve the shafts from the pap using a sieving cloth tha looks like a net with plenty of water. You can repeat the process like three times to ensure the shafts is fully clean.
- Next I left the pap to ferment overnight again. The next morning I drained the upper water and moved the paste that has settled below to another smaller bucket.
- Now, the pap paste is ready.
The pap can be stored in the fridge or freezer for longer life span. On the other hand, if you are having challenges with power supply you can leave the pap in the bucket but be sure to fill it with water that will be replaced every morning to prevent it from getting spoilt.
