Ogi

Method

1. Pick over 80 g of dry white maize, discarding stones and broken husks, and rinse in two changes of cold water. Put it in a bowl or jar, cover with 750 ml of water so the grains sit well below the surface, and leave uncovered-but-screened at warm room temperature for 3 days. The water will cloud, bubble faintly and smell sharply sour — that souring is the ferment and is what makes it ogi rather than plain cornmeal.
2. Drain the maize, rinse it once briefly, and tip it into a blender with 300 ml of water. Blend on high for 2-3 minutes, in bursts, until the mixture is a smooth milky slurry with no gritty kernel pieces left between your fingers.
3. Line a sieve with muslin or a clean cloth set over a deep bowl and pour the slurry through. Gather the cloth and squeeze and twist firmly until only dry-feeling bran and hull are left in it; scrape the underside of the cloth. Discard the chaff — the milky white liquid in the bowl is the ogi.