Yamarita appeared on the Nigerian food scene a few years ago. The idea behind this yam recipe is to keep the yam soft and nice even when it’s no longer hot, because, yam has a way of getting hard when it’s cold. The idea of coating the yam before frying is to keep it from drying out.

So, today we are making fried yam extra special. It is not even that much work. You can serve this at home, or for guests, either as a starter or our popular after the main meal “small chop”. We are pairing it with an intensely delicious tomato sauce, just as TFC serves it. One thing missing is the Charcoal lit chicken though. We are excited just thinking about the end result of this recipe.

So let’s get cooking!

 

Ingredients

12 – 15 rectangular slices of yam – or more depending on how many people

1 egg

3 – 4 tbs of flour

1/2 tbs of cayenne pepper – dry pepper

1 tsp curry powder

Salt

Seasoning cubes

2 Tomatoes

1 red chilli – you substitute with ata rodo (scotch bonnet/habanero pepper)

Nosak Famili Vegetable oil

1/2 red onion

1 clove of garlic

Preparation

  1. Cut the tuber of yam into circles, peel off the skin and cut rectangular slices about an inch thick and rinse with water. Create as many slices as you want. Calculate about 4 – 5 slices per person.

 

  1. Boil the slices with enough water and salt. You will need roughly 7 – 10 minutes, but you have to monitor this closely because you don’t want to overcook the yam which will cause it to break apart when you fry in oil. So, by the 7 minute mark, test with a fork. If it gives way easily, then take it out off the heat. If you can still feel a little resistance, let it boil for another 2 – 3 minutes.

 

As soon as the yams are soft, drain out the water. If you leave the yams in hot water, it will continue cooking.

 

  1. While the yams are boiling, prepare the flour. i.e pour the flour unto a plate, sprinkle in the cayenne pepper, curry powder, salt, half a seasoning cube and combine thoroughly. Break an egg in a bowl and sprinkle in cayenne pepper, the other half of the seasoning cube and a little salt. Also heat up Nosak Famili Vegetable oil in a deep saucepan. You need the oil to get very hot. The volume of oil that you use will depend on the size of the pan. You are going to deep fry the yam slices, so you need enough oil.

 

  1. Take the boiled yam slices out from the pot, one by one and roll in flour. Dip the flour coated slices in the egg mixture one at a time. Drop in the hot oil. If the oil is hot enough, each side should turn crisp and golden in under a minute, flip over to let the other side fry, then sieve out of the oil with a frying spoon.

 

  1. Fry the rest of the slices.

 

Now, to the sauce (Ata dindin) – yamarita is not complete without this

 

Preparation

  1. Chop the onion, tomatoes, chilli and garlic and set aside
  2. Heat up 2 cooking spoons of Nosak Famili vegetable oil, add the curry powder and thyme.  Let this fry for a minute.
  3. Add the chopped ingredients from Step 1. sweat out the contents of the pan and keep frying.
  4. Keep frying until the tomatoes break down. At no point should you add water. Add 1 – 2 bay leaves, 1 cube of seasoning cube, a sprinkling of salt and stir. Keep frying until the sauce reduces and the colour turns dark and the sauce is thick with golden coloured oil showing at the sides of the pan. Taste for salt and seasoning.

Your delicious sauce (ata dindin) is ready. And there you have it. Yamarita and ata dindin