Ji Mmiri Ọkụ

the Igbo yam pepper soup: yam simmered in a fiery broth of dried fish, crayfish, and pepper soup spices, the first food given to a woman after childbirth

Origin: Enugu, Nsukka & Igboland

From the journey of Yam.

Ji mmiri ọkụ means yam in hot water, and it is the Igbo yam pepper soup: chunks of yam cooked in a thin, fiercely peppery broth of dried or smoked fish, ground crayfish, scotch bonnet, and the aromatic seeds that Nigeria sells as pepper soup spice, ehuru (calabash nutmeg), uda, and uziza, finished with scent leaf. As the yam softens, its starch thickens the broth to something between a soup and a porridge. It is the dish given to a woman immediately after she has given birth, cooked for her by her mother during omugwo, the month of care that follows; the heat and the spices are held to clean the womb and bring in the milk. It is also eaten by everyone else, and it appears at the New Yam Festival in August, when the first yams of the season are cut. Igboland puts the yam above every other crop. A man who could fill his barns took the yam title, and Chinua Achebe, writing of his own people in Things Fall Apart, called the yam the king of crops.

Ingredients

Soup

  • 800 g white yam, peeled and cut into 3 cm chunks
  • 200 g dried or smoked fish (catfish or mackerel), soaked in hot water and cleaned
  • 2 tbsp ground crayfish
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 2 scotch bonnet peppers, chopped, or to taste
  • 2 tsp pepper soup spice (ehuru, uda, and uziza ground together)
  • 1 stock cube
  • 1.2 litres water
  • 1 tbsp red palm oil (optional)

To Finish

  • 1 handful scent leaf (nchanwu) or basil, roughly torn
  • Salt

Method

  1. Bring the water to the boil with the onion, scotch bonnet, crayfish, pepper soup spice, and stock cube, and simmer for 5 minutes so that the broth takes up the spices.
  2. Add the dried fish and simmer gently for 10 minutes.
  3. Add the yam and cook for 15 to 20 minutes, until it is tender and beginning to break at the edges and the broth has thickened a little.
  4. Stir in the palm oil, if using, and season with salt.
  5. Take off the heat, scatter in the scent leaf, cover for 2 minutes, and serve very hot in bowls.

Notes

Pepper soup spice is sold ready-ground in African grocers. Calabash nutmeg (ehuru) is the seed that gives it its particular bitter-aromatic edge and is not interchangeable with nutmeg. Some cooks add a handful of dried prawns or a piece of stockfish alongside the dried fish.

The Gastrographer

The Gastrographer

Mapping Culinary History

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Journey Point Map Key

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