Salty Boiled Corn & Groundnuts

Sounds incredibly plain but this is filling, definitely a healthy snack as well as tasty. I do not recommend using bare fingers as this snack is rather a wet one. A tablespoon or teaspoon will do just fine. Azibli, as it’s called in my mother tongue Ewe, is a 2 ingredient snack, that is if you exclude salt and water. Azibli simply means Groundnut-Corn. Azi is groundnut and bli (ebli) is corn. Made from corn kernels and groundnuts, this snack only requires boiling the two, salting appropriately and that is basically it.

You will use corn kernels for this snack and these corn kernels have dried on the cob, been taken off the cob and then dried in the sun. As you can imagine, the kernels, void of moisture will be dry and hard. A good tip is to soak them overnight to speed up the cooking process. You could cook them in a pressure cooker but they should not become mushy. Additionally, always take care when opening a pressure cooker!

As the cooking time for groundnuts and corn kernels vary greatly, the two are not cooked together initially. The corn takes longer to cook therefore you add the groundnuts to your boil towards the last 15 minutes of your cook. Boiling them separately is also an option, however, adding the groundnuts to the boiling corn kernels brings some extra flavour and colour. Your finished product should still have a bit of a bite when they’re ready but still cooked through.

If you have never eaten boiled corn then a good way to tell if your kernels are cooked is to take a bite and check for following: a somewhat floury taste and the colour of the innermost part of the kernel. If the kernel has a raw, floury feel in the mouth then it's not done. Likewise, if the centre of the kernel is white and hard, then the corn still needs to cook further.

This a healthy snack not filled with additives and flavouring and all the other things you cannot pronounce. My mum would give this to my siblings and me to take to school. Protein? Check. Carbohydrates? Double-check.There also happens to be a roasted version of this snack which is very common in Ghana as well. The maize in this roasted variety has a hard crunch and if you don't have strong jaws or teeth in general, then stick with this one.