Senufo

Foutou

also Foufou

Yam, plantain or cassava pounded in a wooden mortar to a smooth elastic dough, eaten with soup. Two people work the pestle and the turning between blows in a rhythm.

Serves 4 · 45 minutes

Kedjenou

Chicken and vegetables sealed in a canari pot and cooked in their own steam with almost no added liquid, shaken rather than stirred. The most characteristically Ivorian dish there is.

Serves 6 · 1 hour 30 minutes

Attiéké with Grilled Fish

Fermented grated cassava steamed into light sour couscous, served with a whole grilled fish and raw onion. The lunch of Abidjan, eaten off a plastic table under an awning.

Serves 4 · 40 minutes

Garba

also Attiéké thon, Garba kedjenou

Fried tuna on a heap of attiéké with raw onion, tomato and chilli, sold from wooden kiosks by Nigerien vendors across Abidjan. The cheapest full meal in the city.

Serves 4 · 35 minutes

Alloco

also Fried plantain, Aloko

Ripe plantain fried in palm oil and served with a raw onion and chilli relish, sold in the evening on every Abidjan street by the women called allocodrome vendors.

Serves 4 · 25 minutes

Sauce Graine

Palm nut pulp cooked down with meat, smoked fish and crab into a deep orange sauce, served with rice or foutou. Made for family Sundays and celebrations across the south.

Serves 8 · 2 hours

Sauce Claire

A thin, clear, fiercely peppery broth of fish and aubergine, from the lagoon country. Named for what it is not: no palm oil, no groundnut, no thickening at all.

Serves 6 · 45 minutes

Bissap

also Jus d'oseille

Hibiscus steeped with mint and pineapple and served ice cold in sealed plastic sachets from every cooler box in Abidjan. The default soft drink of West Africa.

Serves 8 · 30 minutes, plus chilling

Tô

also Toh

Millet or sorghum porridge cooked stiff and eaten with a leaf or okra sauce, the daily food across the Sahelian belt. Torn off in pieces and dipped with the right hand.

Serves 6 · 40 minutes

Tiguadege Na

also Maafe, Groundnut stew

Meat in a thick groundnut and tomato sauce over rice, Mali's national dish and the ancestor of groundnut stews from Senegal to Cameroon. The oil rising to the top is how you know it is done.

Serves 6 · 1 hour 45 minutes

Fakoye

A sauce of powdered sesame leaves with meat and tomato, served over rice or tô. Sold from lunch pots in Bamako, and unmistakable for its slightly slippery texture.

Serves 6 · 1 hour

Capitaine à la Bamakoise

Nile perch from the Niger, stuffed and grilled whole, served with fried plantain and a sharp onion salad. The dish Bamako restaurants put in front of a visitor.

Serves 4 · 1 hour

Widjila

Millet couscous with camel or mutton and curdled milk, from the Tuareg and Songhai north. The sour milk poured over at the end is what distinguishes it.

Serves 6 · 2 hours

Tigadèguèna Poulet

also Chicken groundnut sauce

Chicken in groundnut sauce with sweet potato and cabbage, the Bamako version of the Sahel's great sauce, served over rice.

Serves 6 · 1 hour 30 minutes

Dabileni

Hibiscus juice, called dabileni in Bambara, sold from coolers and street-corner freezers across Bamako. The same drink as bissap and sobolo, with a Malian preference for very sweet.

Serves 8 · 30 minutes, plus chilling

Dèguè

also Thiakry, Millet yoghurt

Steamed millet grain in sweetened soured milk with vanilla and nutmeg, drunk cold from a plastic sachet at every Malian roadside.

Serves 6 · 45 minutes, plus chilling

Tô

also Saghbo

Stiff millet or sorghum porridge, the daily food of most of the country, torn off in lumps and dipped in sauce. Eaten with the right hand from a shared bowl.

Serves 6 · 40 minutes

Riz Gras

Rice cooked in a rich tomato and meat broth until it absorbs everything, the West African one-pot in its Burkinabè form. The name means fat rice and is not an exaggeration.

Serves 6 · 1 hour 30 minutes

Brochettes

Skewers of beef or mutton grilled over charcoal and rolled in a peppery groundnut spice mix, sold from braziers on every street corner in Ouagadougou after dark.

Serves Makes 12 · 30 minutes, plus 2 hours marinating

Gonré

also Bean cake, Gonre

Black-eyed beans ground with onion and chilli, wrapped in leaf and steamed into a firm savoury cake. Burkina Faso's breakfast and market food.

Serves 8 · 1 hour 30 minutes, plus overnight soaking

Poulet Bicyclette

Free-range chicken, so called because it has spent its life running about, marinated and grilled whole over charcoal. Served flattened with onion sauce for guests and celebrations.

Serves 4 · 1 hour 30 minutes, plus 4 hours marinating

Zamnè

also Acacia seeds, Zaamné

The small green seeds of a wild acacia, boiled long and cooked with beef and onion. A Burkinabè delicacy that is expensive, laborious and served to people you want to impress.

Serves 6 · 3 hours

Babenda

Wild leaves, rice and soumbala cooked together into a dark green one-pot, from the Mossi plateau. Soumbala is fermented néré seed and gives the dish its powerful savoury depth.

Serves 6 · 1 hour

Dolo

also Millet beer, Chapalo

Sorghum beer brewed by women and sold in courtyards marked with an upturned calabash on a pole. It is drunk within a day or two, still fermenting, from a shared gourd.

Serves Makes about 5 litres · 4 days