Asaro- Yam Porridge (Pottage)
Ingredients
- 1 Small Puna Tuber Yam (peel, and cubed)
- 1 Habanero / Rodo
- 1 Red bell pepper/ Tatashe
- 1 Roma tomato
- Dry fish (cleaned and deboned; optional)
- 1.5 Onions (divided)
- Palm oil
- Seasoning powder/cube
- Salt to taste
Instructions
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Gather the ingredients
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Slice the yam, peel, cube, and drop into a bowl of water. You might want to do the slice one at a time because some yams change color when they’re sliced down all at once.
Repeat the process until you’re done with the yam.
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Storage Tip: if you have more yam and you're not ready to cook them you can store them in the freezer, simply slice, peel, cut to the desired shapes, rinse, and the portion you're going to cook at a time in a zip lock and freeze. When you're ready to cook boil water in a pot and add the frozen yams.
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Clean the peppers deseed the red bell/tatashe you can also deseed the habanero if you wish too, rinse with tomato, and one onion. Blend until you have smooth paste or your preference.
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Also, soak the dry fish (if you’re using) in hot water and salt, remove and debone then set aside.
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Place a saucepan/pot over medium-high heat and heat the oil. You can use as little oil or as much as you want. I used about a ¼ cup.
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Use your hand or strainer to get the cubed yam out of the water (you might need to rinse the yam more than one time to get all the dirt out) you can drain it a little bit or completely.
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After the oil is hot, slice/dice the remaining half of the onion and sauté in the hot oil for a few minutes until the onion is translucent.
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Add the drained yam into the oil (if there’s water in the yam be careful when adding them) and combine to fry for about one minute.
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I like this method because I’m not adding extra water (except small water I used to rinse out the pepper from the blender) into the porridge/pottage frying it will make it softer but depending on the type of yam you’re using you might need to add water/stock to yours. This way you don't need to be scared of too much water.
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Add the blended pepper mixture.
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Add the deboned fish, season with salt and pepper. Cover and cook until the yam is soft, mine took about 10 minutes, the cooking time will be vary depending on the type of the yam.
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Use the cooking spoon to press down the yam mixture to submerge. Cover and cook until the yam is soft, mine took about 10 minutes, the cooking time will be vary depending on the type of the yam.
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Mash the yam mixture with a masher or wooden spoon to your preference. If you like it chunky with some whole yam, gently mash some and leave some or if you want it all smooth you can mash all the yam. Then use a wooden spoon/cooking spoon to mix to combine. Check the seasoning and readjust if necessary then mix again. Turn off the heat.
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Do you see how creamy it is? Serve and enjoy.
