Asaro with Suya bites

Asaro (mashed yam pottage ) with Suya bites. Asaro is the Yoruba version of yam pottage. Asaro was my favourite meal in primary school. Such a simple dish that you can rustle up in 30 minutes with part cooked at home part cooked from the streets (the Suya)

We all did this silly act of dancing in front of the mirror when we were kids …. in our parent’s room, most times our parents were not in sight. It was here we perfected our dance steps before launching out on the next birthday party. But guess what, some people like me still do this silly thing. I was dancing ‘Shoki” the other day., for those of you who do not know , this is the latest dance at most weddings and youth parties. When you have young adults as children as I do and you talk to them a lot you will know these things.
See me stretching my  right leg to the front and my right hand is flung in reckless abandon to the right as well and then the right hand is slowly dropped towards the right toes  and I am pretending to be caressing my legs up to my eyes and then the palm stops on my eyes , pretending to close the eyes. This is really  a sight to behold. I never will attempt to do this in public. But really these goofy acts just sends me rolling on the floor with laughter when I see how ridiculous I look doing some of these new dances.
This was my way of relieving tension on Friday night. You may want to try some new dance steps just for the laughter it will bring. But my warning is make sure your kids are not in sight. Enjoy the dancing.

So back to the dish for today Asaro. I just like the way you put every thing in the pot and 20-30 minutes later your Asaro is ready.  This is a dish you can prepare before leaving for work, leave in the fridge without the oil, get home add the oil and set to cook and by the time you have freshened-up , the meal is ready.

Recipe for how to make Asaro

Ingredients
8 pieces of medium size cubes Yam
2 cooking spoons of Tomato, Pepper and Onion blend
2 cooking spoons Palm oil
1 table spoon dry Crayfish( ground)
Seasoning cube to taste
Salt to taste
2 Sticks Suya or more

Method
1, Blend tomato, pepper and onion and bring to boil for about 15 minutes or till water dries up.Boiling helps to remove the sourness from the tomato and pepper
2, Peel yam and cut into small cubes. This gets the yam cooking faster. The smaller the cubes the quicker the yam softens
3, Add the yams to the tomato pot and add 11/2 cups of water, and all the other ingredients and cook for 20 –  25 minutes or until yam is very soft
Half way through cooking taste to correct the seasoning
4, Lower the heat and use a wooden spoon or regular cooking spoon to mash the yam until completely puréed .
5, Turn off heat and serve with pepper sauce and Suya cut up into tiny bites

Suya bites
To get that extra crunchiness to the meat you may wish to place the Suya in the oven for about 5-10 minutes for it to be a bit dry , cool and chop up into bites and sprinkle on top of the pottage.
If you wish you can make your Suya at home.