Monday came with its own wahala today as someone run into my parked car at the office. This made me work with almost half-a-mind for the rest of the day as I had left it at the mechanic of the guilty party. Its fine now. I picked it up and went home to prepare what has been on my mind since Saturday. Agb3liKaaklo. 

I saw this local snack at #ChaleWote2015 as I was preparing to leave the crowded space. I couldn’t help but ask the seller to share the recipe. She laughed at my request but went ahead.  Yes I have to try this!

Agb3liKaaklo- Agb3li means cassava in Ewe and Kaaklo in Ga has long since been the rounded deep fried mashed plantain. So that’s where the two came together; round cassava balls. Or as the seller said- Cassava Doughnut. Oh but what a doughnut! Forget Krispy Kremes. This is tough and cruncy on the outside with a softer centre and is eaten together with matured coconut flesh.

Following her directions, I bought some cassava roots and got to work.

1 medium sized cassava root

1 medium sized onion

1 Teaspoonful of salt

Difficulty: Koko (Easy)

How Its Done

1.     Grate one root of cassava using the small grating holes for a smoother texture.

2.     Dice onions into little squares and add to grated cassava.

3.     Add salt to the mixture.

4.     Form golf-sized balls of the mixture using your hand. I made mine slightly smaller though as this was a test of my agb3likaaklo skills. 

5.     Place a deep-centered frying pan or saucepan on fire and fill with oil. Deep fry the cassava balls.

6.     Don’t add too many in like I have done so as to have space to turn. Also the mixture can disintegrate if not balled up properly. 

7.     Make sure all the sides are browned and take out.

8.     Here’s the best part. Eat!

I decided to twist the recipe a bit by adding curry to a smaller portion of the cassava to determine how the flavour would be affected. It definitely made the sample portions darker and spicier. That explains the brownish balls in point 4. See what happened to my nicely rounded handwork ! I would definitely make a bigger version next time. 

This is a snack which thanks to its tough chewy nature easily makes one fed up with after two chewy 'balls'. 

Agb3liKaaklo is one of the many indigenous snacks we have in Ghana which is slowly disappearing but could do with an integration into our everyday food lifestyle. I wonder why its only in Central Accra that one is likely to find sellers.  The same with Adulee (Monkey's Tail in Ga) Aboloo , etc. 

What do you think of my recipe? Have you tried Agb3liKaaklo before? What could be done to market this food more on the Ghanaian market?