Sinasir
Also: Masara, Rice pancake, Fermented rice flatbread
A lacy, slightly sour West African flatbread made from a fermented rice batter cooked on a griddle.
Identity criteria
- 1Built on a ground-rice batter (sometimes with a little millet or yeast)
- 2Fermented before cooking, giving its characteristic mild sourness
- 3Cooked on one side on a hot greased griddle or pan into a soft, lacy round
- 4Spongy and slightly holey rather than dense
- 5Eaten for breakfast with a soup, stew or sweet accompaniment
Components
Rice (ground to batter)essentialSoaked and milled; the foundation of the bread
Oil for the griddleessential
Wateressential
Yeast or natural fermentationessentialCreates the rise, holes and sour note
Sugar and/or saltoptional
Technique
- Batter fermentation
- Develops the signature gentle sourness and the airy, lacy crumb
- One-sided griddle cooking
- Sets a soft top and lightly browned base, producing the spongy pancake texture
Form & serving
- Served
- Soft round flatbread, often folded
- Temperature
- Warm
- Portion
- Several rounds per person
- Pairs with
- miyan taushe (pumpkin soup) · stew · honey · sugar · tea
Character
Flavour
Texture
Soft, spongy and lacy with small holes
Eaten
A common Sahelian breakfast bread sold by street vendors and made at home, paired with soup, stew or something sweet.
When
all year
Variations & related
Regional variations
- Masara · Northern Nigeria
The Hausa name and version of the same fermented rice pancake
- Millet-rice sinasir · Niger / Chad
Blends rice with millet flour
Related dishes
- sibling Masa
Closely related fermented rice cakes of the region
- pairs-with Miyan taushe
Often eaten with pumpkin/peanut soup
Substitutions
Rice → Rice blended with a little milletadmissible
Traditional in some areas
Fermentation → Unfermented quick batterinadmissible
Loses the sourness and lacy crumb that define sinasir
Rice → Wheat flourinadmissible
Becomes an ordinary wheat pancake, no longer sinasir
Common mistakes
- Skipping fermentation, losing the sour tang and airy holes
- Using wheat flour instead of rice, which changes the dish entirely
- Cooking on too high heat and burning the lacy surface
- Making the batter too thick so it bakes dense instead of lacy
Provenance
Sinasir is a fermented rice flatbread shared across the Hausa and Sahelian peoples of Niger, northern Nigeria and Chad, eaten as a breakfast staple.
Shared by: Niger, Nigeria, Chad
References
- 1.Hausa / Sahelian home-cooking tradition
Confidence: high