Diary Game//03/09/2025: Cassava to Garri (Part 2 – Sieving & Frying Stage)

The continuation
Link:The Diary Game// 02/09/2025: Garri Diaries: My Cassava Processing Adventure.

After I grated and pressed the cassava, I allowed it to stayed for some time for fermentation. It was ready for the final and most interesting stage, the sieving and frying part which I promise to show you guys how I did it.

The first thing I did was to sieve the pressed cassava to remove lumps and make it smooth. This stage is very important because it helps to give the garri that fine and uniform texture everyone loves. And also help in separating the lumps into tiny particles that can easily be fried to dryness.

Now came the frying part, the most delicate stage in garri production. We used a big flat frying pan locally called “frying garri pot” placed on firewood. I heated the pan properly, then began to pour the sieved cassava bit by bit while constantly turning it with a flat wooden paddle. The turning has to be continuous, otherwise it can easily burn and clump together. Which is very bad.

I added a little quantity of palm oil to neutralize the effect of the poisonous chemical in garri and also give it a yellowish look. To remove the water from the cassava to make it dry, I kept turning, until the wet cassava slowly transformed into dry, golden garri granules. Depending on how long you fry, I can decide to get white garri or allow it to brown slightly for yellow garri because I added a little palm oil.

When the water was completely removed to my taste, I removed some of the firewood to reduce the heat and used the wooden spoon to transfer it to an empty basin. After frying everything, I spread it to cool off before packing into a bag. Am At that moment, I felt so fulfilled because all the hard work from harvesting, peeling, grating, pressing, sieving, and finally frying had produced the final product, garri, my “life saver.”😂😂

That was the end of my cassava to garri journey. Indeed, the process is tasking, but the joy of seeing the final result makes it worth every effort. It has been a while I did this, but I was glad that I was still able to carry out this whole process with so much joy in me. Indeed, there is dignity in hardwork.