Like the title says, Ikokore is a water yam dish, almost like a porridge. It’s origins are amongst the Ijebus of the Southwestern part of Nigeria. In Nigeria, water yam has its season when it’s usually more available and this is around September.

Here, water yam is also known as ‘Puerto Rico yam,’ and if you can’t find it in the African stores, head on over to the Asian or Hispanic stores. Water yam is of a gummy consistency; it draws, kinda like Okra.

The trick to knowing if the yam at the store really is water yam is to poke/ pierce it with a sharp object. When you do this, if it draws, then you have the right yam… proceed to the counter! It’s very tasty and serves as a welcome substitute to eating rice/pasta all the time.

To learn how to make, here’s what you’ll need:

2 s water yams OR 1 m water yam
1 m red bell pepper
2 m tomatoes
2 scotch bonnet peppers/ habaneros
1 s red onion
1/2 cup canola+palm oil
2 knorr cubes
1 tbsp Goya Adobo seasoning w/ cumin
1 cup dried fish/ shawa
1.5 cups water

(I used the 2 yams on the left, had some left over and made Ojojo)

1. Peel skin off water yam. Cut into large chunks.

2. Grate using the smallest side of a grater.

3. Beat/mix with your hands and set aside.

4. Blend your red bell pepper, tomatoes, habanero and onions. Add 1/2 cup water (you want a watery mix); blend thoroughly.

5. Heat oil mix in pot over medium heat. Add blended mix. Let cook over medium heat for 15 minutes.

6. While pepper is cooking, pour hot water over dried fish. Let sit for 5 minutes. Drain water and remove as many bones as you can.

7. Tear into smaller pieces with your fingers and add to boiling pepper, stir. Add seasonings to boiling pepper, stir.
(At this point, if your pepper mix is too thick, add one cup water). Let cook another 5 minutes still over medium heat. Reduce heat to low.

8. With a tablespoon or your hands (I used my hands), add scoops of the grated yam to the boiling pepper. At this point, DO NOT mix so the yam can set.

9. Increase heat to medium-low and let cook another 15 minutes. Use a wooden spoon to stir gently so fish and yam mix evenly. (If you made the scoops too big, get a tad rough with it and lightly mash the yams to get it to cook evenly.) Let simmer on low heat for 5 minutes. Turn off heat, let stand a few minutes before serving.

Ikokore can be eaten alone as it usually is, but I have to have my meat, so I served it with fried chicken stew.

If you’re not a fish fan, omit it and add something you prefer, you could boil some shaki/meat/chicken separately and add it to the boiling pepper (replacing the fish in the recipe steps), so that way you have kinda like a one-pot meal with no need for sides.

OR, you could make it without any additions, totally up to your tastebuds!

Enjoy…

Asaro, also known as Ebe (pronounced eh-beh) is a Nigerian dish native to the Yorubas. I’m not exactly sure what region it originated from, but I do know it’s a traditional Yoruba dish. It is very similar to Ikokore, in the sense that its yam cooked in a mix of blended peppers. The only difference is that Ikokore uses water yam while Asaro uses regular yam.

It’s a one pot meal and doesn’t take too long to prepare.

To make Asaro, here’s what you’ll need:

1 m tuber of yam
1 large red bell pepper
1 m red onion
2 cloves garlic
Ginger (same size as 2 garlic cloves)
3 plum tomatoes (or 1 m/l regular tomato)
3 scotch bonnet peppers
Handful kpanla or stock fish (boil to soften)
1 tbsp Adobo seasoning
1 tsbp Curry powder
2 knorr cubes
2 bay leaves
3-4 cups water
1/2 cup Canola oil
1/2 cup Palm oil

1. Rinse tuber of yam to rid it of dirt, sand etc. Cut into thick rounds.

2. Peel off outer skin.

3. Cut out any dark areas in the yam (like the areas above the knife in above pic: use tip of knife to do this). Cut each round into cubes (first cut in half, then cut each half into another half etc). Add cold water to a large bowl and rinse yam cubes. Drain and add more clean, cold water. Add cubed yam into cold water (to prevent yam from changing color).

4. Set aside for a few minutes (I refrigerated it).

5. Heat pot over medium heat. Cut and blend red bell peppers, onion, tomatoes, scotch bonnet peppers, garlic and ginger. Add 3-4 cups water to blended mix. Add Canola and palm oil to pot. Add blended peppers etc. Cover and let boil over medium heat for 10 minutes.

6. Add seasonings (knorr, curry, adobo, bay leaves). Stir, let boil for 5 minutes still over medium heat. Add cubed yam (careful, so pepper doesn’t splash; reduce heat if necessary). Drain kpanla (if soaked in water) and add to boiling pepper.

(If you reduced heat, turn it back up to medium.)

7. Stir and let cook for 20-25 minutes or till yam is fork tender. Once soft, use a potato masher to mash, back of a serving spoon or a fork. *Mash and stir – I like some yam chunks, so I didn’t mash everything*

8. Turn off heat. Voila!

Serve while hot with meat of your choice.

*I plated it with goat meat and chicken*

Conversely, instead of cutting up the yam first, you could cut and boil the pepper first, and while that is boiling, start on the yam. Totally up to you of course, either way works just fine. If 3 scotch bonnet peppers is just too much (or three much, haha!) just use 1 0r 2, all depending on how much heat you can handle.

It’s a refreshing departure from eating rice (or whatever) all the time. I prefer to store this in a bowl as opposed to keeping leftovers in the pot in the fridge. That way, you can microwave however much you need (or all of it) without having to add water which might alter the texture and taste.

You can also add your cooked meat to the pot along with the yam and kpanla if you prefer. Once you make it the first time, you can alter the recipe to your preferences the next go round.

Here’s a video tutorial of a really adorable older lady making Asaro!

Enjoy…

A few months ago, I was contacted the publisher of Be You Magazine, a Nigerian based publication, asking if they could publish my recipes. I was asleep when I first got the email but since emails come to my phone, it buzzed, so I woke up and read it briefly, didn’t quite get the gist of it, said ‘huh?’ and went right back to sleep.

When I fully woke up later, I remembered the email and logged in to read it. This time, I got the gist of it, but I was so pleasantly shocked that it took me a good few days to respond, lol. Jokes aside though, I’m truly honored and humbled to have my recipes published in a Nigerian magazine, it really means a lot to me, I mean AvartsyCooking (well, some of it) is in print!

Some of you know this story and some don’t, but when I first started AvartsyCooking in late 2008, it was called The Avartsy Kitchen Chronicles and was just a way for me to have a photo collection of food that I’d cooked. In the last, almost two years, AvartsyCooking is becoming more than I imagined it being. Among other things, its become a very integral part of my life and I’m always very grateful to everyone who reads, irrespective of whether or not you leave comments. You’re appreciated! No, really you are.

Be You Magazine is a new magazine in the Nigerian market catering to both men and women (2 separate covers; 1 issue) with a focus on life & style. The magazine is currently published once every two months and is available at your local newsstands in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Uyo, Asaba and Benin. Eventually, it will go monthly and have more locations added.

Since it caters to both men and women with two separate covers, two recipes from AvartsyCooking will be featured for each cover in the current and upcoming issues.

The first two recipes featured are Asaro and Peppered Gizzards.

My sister scanned these over to me and I’m awaiting the actual copies of the magazine; when I get those, there will be some giveaways for those not in Nigeria! If you’re in Nigeria, be sure to pick up a copy! (Actually, *clears throat* in the voice of those Nigerian movie announcers, GRAB YOUR COPY NOW!!! LOL)

Thank YOU! (head bow and exits stage left :))