Yam ragout is a very simple yet delicious dish. It can be prepared in so many variations. This dish evokes so many memories for me. When I was little, there was a family in our neighborhood who came from Nigeria, more precisely from the Igbo . The eldest daughter was exactly my age, and we were friends. We visited each other, and there was often food involved. That's how she got to know our food, and I got to know hers. I was already familiar with yam back then, but we only ever had it steamed as a side dish or in a stew, usually following the same recipe. It consisted of yam with palm oil, dried fish, salt, a few spices, water, and then cooked until tender—that was it.
Back then, at Adaku's – that was my Ibggo friend's name – I discovered all the things you could do with yams. They served pounded yam with various delicious sauces. Yam was also a side dish, but there were so many different kinds of yam stew, each one different, yet always incredibly tasty. It was usually with lots of meat or fish, often both at the same time. I loved eating at Adaku's family's house. Not only because they were the first and only ones within a radius of at least three kilometers to own a television, but also because of their delicious yam dishes.
Adaku's mother, who was also a yam vendor, was known throughout the city for the variety of her produce. She had so many different kinds of yams, and naturally, hers were the best. Up until then, I had found the recipe delicious. But when I tried Adaku's mother's version, my own mother's seemed rather bland for quite some time.
After many years in Germany, I was visiting Cameroon again. There I discovered yams in my mother's pantry and asked for them for lunch. My mother whipped up the stew she'd made years before, and I fell in love all over again with this delicious dish, which I had found a bit boring before. Since then, I've occasionally cooked yam stew according to my mother's recipe. But I often make variations of it, too. This recipe is one such new interpretation. It tastes different, but very delicious, and is almost as quick to make as my mother's.
The whole thing as a video
Ignames malaxées au poulet fumé|Yamragout with smoked chicken
Ingredients
- 500 g yam
- 500g smoked chicken
- 200g chopped tomatoes
- 50 ml cooking oil
- 20 g Manjanga
- 1 onions
- 2 tsp Magic Sauce
- 1 tsp pepper
- 1 tsp lovage
- 3 garlic cloves
- 1 Finger ginger
- 2-3 Habanero
- approx. 1 L of water
Instructions
- Peel the yams, cut them into pieces and wash them thoroughly until the starch on the surface is no longer present
- Wash the chicken leg as well, cut it into pieces
- Add the finely chopped onions, salt, and chicken pieces to a pot with hot oil and sauté for about 2 minutes
- Add the chopped tomatoes and the habanero pepper, mix well, and simmer for about 3 minutes
- Add the yam pieces, the manjanga (a mixture of crushed pepper, ginger and garlic), the lovage, and water
- Mix everything well and simmer, covered, for about 15 minutes. Add more water if needed
- Then add the Magic Sauce and simmer for another 5 minutes. Season to taste, serve hot and enjoy
