Ikokore

the Ijebu water yam pottage: grated water yam dropped in lumps into a peppery palm oil broth with smoked fish, where the small lumps melt and the big ones stay

Origin: Ijebu-Ode & Yorubaland

From the journey of Yam.

Ikokore, sometimes ifokore, is the dish of the Ijebu people of south-western Nigeria, and it is made not with the white yam that is pounded but with ewura, the water yam, Dioscorea alata, whose flesh is wet and slippery and cannot be pounded at all. The yam is grated raw to a sticky mash, seasoned, and then scooped in lumps of two sizes into a simmering broth of blended pepper, palm oil, smoked fish, and locust bean. The small lumps dissolve and thicken the pot; the large ones set into soft dumplings. It is a festival food as much as a household one, cooked for weddings and naming ceremonies, and it is the dish by which the Ijebu are teased and by which they are proud. The atlas notes it for a second reason: in a region whose yam is African, ikokore is built on the Asian yam, which reached West Africa long before the Europeans did.

Ingredients

Yam

  • 1 kg water yam (ewura), peeled
  • 0.5 tsp salt

Broth

  • 4 tbsp red palm oil
  • 3 red bell peppers (tatashe) and 2 scotch bonnets, blended with 1 onion
  • 1 tbsp ground crayfish
  • 1 tbsp iru (fermented locust bean)
  • 200 g smoked fish, flaked, and 50 g dried prawns
  • 1 stock cube
  • 800 ml water or stock
  • Salt

Method

  1. Grate the water yam on the fine side of a box grater, or blend it very briefly, to a thick, sticky mash. Beat in the salt.
  2. Warm the palm oil in a wide pot, add the blended pepper, and fry for 10 minutes until it darkens and the oil separates.
  3. Add the water, crayfish, iru, stock cube, smoked fish, and dried prawns, and bring to a simmer.
  4. Scoop the yam mash into the simmering broth with a spoon, in a mixture of small and large lumps. Do not stir for the first 10 minutes.
  5. Simmer for 25 to 30 minutes, stirring gently once or twice, until the small lumps have dissolved into the broth and the large ones are firm and cooked through.
  6. Season and serve hot, on its own or with rice.

Notes

Water yam is sold in African and Caribbean grocers, sometimes as greater yam or ube (not to be confused with the Nigerian ube, the African pear). The mash can be seasoned with a spoonful of the blended pepper before it goes in, which flavours the dumplings from inside.

The Gastrographer

The Gastrographer

Mapping Culinary History

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Ingredient originTrade or transit route
Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control
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