How to make Nigerian Yamarita

Yamarita appeared on the Nigerian culinary scene a couple of years ago. The main reason for the adaptation of this recipe was to help keep the yam soft and nice even when it’s cold because yam has a way of getting hard when its cold. Actually yams are best eaten hot or warm.

The idea of coating the yam before frying is to help prevent it from drying out. The usual coating for the yam in this recipe is white wheat  flour but I have opted for oat flour to help get in some fibre into the meal. I also chopped some fresh pepper into the batter for colour and additional veggie crunch. Boiling the yam itself with some chicken seasoning and curry powder makes my version of Yamarita even more interesting.

Yam is one of the most consumed carbohydrate foods in Nigeria. In another meaning yam as a word has been associated with sexuality. So instead of the the usual English expression of love “Honey bunch” , we will say my “Yamarita”, that sounds quite sexy. It is also believed that yams contain some fertility properties, no wonder along the west coast of Africa we love to eat yams.

Yamarita can go as finger food or main meal.  For other interesting ideas for finger foods you may want to try my puff puff with minced meat filling or Puff puff sausage sticks. For those that have little kids this is one meal that wraps proteins and carbs into one tasty ‘stick’ and this will remain interesting at lunch time when you pop these into their lunch boxes.

So the next time you are thinking of something more fancy around yam then think Yamarita .

How to make Yamarita ?

10-12 sticks of yam

1 teaspoon Curry powder

2 Chicken seasoning cubes

Dry pepper to taste

1 Egg

2 tablespoons Oat flour

1 teaspoon green Indian pepper or unripe Shombo pepper, diced

1 teaspoon Red Scotch Bonnet pepper , diced.

Salt to taste

Vegetable oil for frying

Tomato ketchup or pepper sauce for dipping

Method

1. Bring water to the boil. Add a bit of the curry powder and 1 seasoning cube and salt to the water and cook the yam till soft. Remove yam and set aside.

2. Beat the egg, add some curry, seasoning, some dry pepper, salt to taste and mix well. Add the oat flour and mix well with a fork or spoon smoothen the batter. If you cannot find oat flour in the store, blend some breakfast oats in your domestic blender and you have your oat flour. Lastly add the diced peppers to the batter and mix. If you are not a pepper lover like me you can skip this step.

3. Heat the oil until hot.

4. Dip each piece of the yam in the batter and coat well with the batter and fry till golden brown.

5. Serve with tomato ketchup or pepper sauce.