How to make Dakuwa Aya

If there is something that my northern country men do not lack is the abundance of snacks and sweet ones at that. Dakuwa Aya is one of such sweet snack.

On my several visits to the north I take time to enjoy these snacks and guess what I bring some back home to Lagos. So when I am not visiting physically I have good contacts. For example, one of my older friends Hajia Maimuna who leaves in Kano helps to make Dakuwa Aya and sends to me in Lagos .

I requested the ingredients from her  and made it in Lagios. Guess what, my result was even more mouth and health friendlier. First, because the Tiger nut is usually pounded you have a more chaffy Dakuwa. So I blended. SecondlyI replaced sugar with honey. What you have here is a great energy packed mini balls with some proteins from the groundnut and spiciness and aromatic flavour from the cloves, pepper and ginger. Enjoy the life with my favourite snack from Kano.

 

Recipe for Dakuwa Aya

Ingredients

1 cup very dried Tiger nut powder

1/2 cup ground roasted Ground nut

Dried Pepper to taste

1/2 teaspoon Cloves

Half teaspoon ginger powder

1/2 – 3/4 cup Honey

Method

1. Wash and sun dry the Tiger nut.
2. Dry fry the Tiger nut until it starts to brown but not burnt. This should take about 5-10 minutes. Allow to cool. If you plan to use a domestic blender, first pound in a mortar to break up the dry hard nuts and then blend in the dry ingredient part of the blender. This puts less pressure on your blender. A food processor will do the job easier or simply get it ground in the market
3. Blend the groundnut, pepper and ginger powder into a smooth paste. You can get your ginger powder by grating dry ginger slices.

4. Mix the Aya powder with the groundnut blend
5. Add the honey to the dry ingredients, knead into a ball and wrap in foil if you wish to keep it whole. Store in a container and leave in the kitchen in a safe place
6. To serve, mold into small balls.