Afrolems On Transforming Puff-Puff To The Dessert It Deserves To Be
According to CNN, Afrolems is one of the top 5 African food blogs to follow for good reason. The possibilities of Nigerian food are endless, and Atim Ukoh, founder and creative director of Afrolems seeks to educate the world about this.
Her aim is to “stylize African food so it can be internationalized”, and this manifests in her recipes. Followers and readers of her blog will find interesting dessert recipes rooted in Nigerian cuisine. . At the peak of the lockdown in June 2020, she created The Puff-Puff series, an Instagram page where viewers can enjoy visuals of her experiments and many fun twists on puff-puff.
From the viral yoghurt puff-puff recipe to the puff-puff tower you’ll find on the dessert section in The House, it is clear that Afrolems has an affinity for puff-puff
Puff-puff remains an underrated Nigerian snack, which has rightfully claimed its space atop the list of Nigerian desserts every one with great taste should be having. To understand how Atim Ukoh of Afrolems wields her magic over this staple, we, at Eat.Drink.Lagos had a fun chat with her on this topic.
So far, you’ve cooked puff puff burgers and consulted for The House Lagos, in the creation of their famous puff puff tower. How did you fall in love with the snack?
Growing up, my parents sometimes asked my uncle to help with after school runs and we got so excited because we knew we were going to be treated to Mama Kas puff-puff and after-school ‘yogo’! Thinking about it now, it's the winning combo that has manifested years later in my yoghurt puff puff recipe. My love for puff-puff has been all my conscious life.
At the height of the lockdown, you started your puff puff recipe series. Did you expect it to be a big deal or was it an intentional process?
I knew it would be a thing but I didn’t plan to have a whole page for it. At the beginning of the lockdown, flour and yeast were like gold in the stores, and it was a global issue. We managed to bypass flour scarcity but yeast was still an issue.
I had made a flatbread recipe on my Instagram live and mistakenly added a bit more yoghurt to the mixture. It was giving puff puff vibes so I fried it in hot oil it and voila, a new recipe in the midst of the pandemic was born!
We believe puff puff should be an elite dessert staple. Would you call beignets a sister to puff-puff?
Most definitely! Puff-puff has many sisters and cousins all over the world. In Turkey and Greece, they also have lokma and loukoumades which are similar to puff puff. Even in Canada, they have Timbits, another puff-puff adjacent.
In Northern Nigeria, though, the palettes are more inclined to sweeter foods so we can definitely take a cue from there to develop some dessert staples and I believe puff puff should be high on that list.
Puff-Puff has a Canadian sibling? I stan! So let’s settle this quickly. Puff puff or buns?
Buns remind me of that struggle relative that always tries and fails to join the cool kids, and I personally think it should remain in the past where it belongs. I know people don't like my buns slander but it is what it is.
Puff-puff is a phenomenon across Africa. Where would you say you had the best puff puff ever?
I haven’t travelled across Africa enough to say any particular country has the best puff puff but there are some interesting things people do with it. I still like the idea of what we do here but maybe that might change the more I travel.
Let’s get to deconstruction. For the palm wine puff puff, the liquor was an obvious alternative to yeast. Would it qualify as an alcohol-infused dessert, though Nigerians don’t necessarily acknowledge the alcohol content in palm wine?
It counts only when we double up with the palm wine as a glaze. The palm wine as a substitute for the yeast component was the main goal but once you fry it, it loses the alcohol content that wasn’t much to start with. But making a glaze without heating it up would make it an alcohol-infused dessert.
Some people believe puff puff deserves better than being a side piece in a small chops pack. What would you replace it with?
What would I replace it with? Blasphemy!! If anything, Mosa can take a hike! LOL! I think the reason it has maintained side piece status in a small chops pack is that Nigerians haven’t incorporated meat into the puff puff itself.
My mum and I made minced goat meat puff puff with some cheese and it banged, hard! I am definitely not replacing it but maybe I’d give it a facelift with sweet and savoury options.
With the deconstructing food trend, you see tacos served in bowls as opposed to within shells, with each item taking the center stage. With respect to this, how would you deconstruct puff puff?
Puff puff is a bit tricky to consider deconstructing. Each ingredient is reliant on the next for it to come together. The yeast requires a certain amount of sugar to activate, the water is necessary for this process to happen and the gluten in the flour brings it all together. If there were flavors to play with then deconstruction would work. Well, I stand to be corrected on this, sha.
What’s a hot take you have about puff puff and Nigerian desserts in general?
I think we made puff puff a dessert option very recently. I think it wasn’t a consideration for that. If anything, it was breakfast. I did a stint in Unilag for four months and in Moremi hall, every morning, a lady yelled “hot donut, buy your hot donut!”. It was puff puff, she just didn’t call it that.
It’s a bread substitute as far as I am concerned, and it would be interesting to see more explorations with puff puff sandwiches with puff-puff as the bread option of course.