In Africa, the Yoruba land to be precise, Pounded Yam which is also known as Iyan is a prominent food of the land. Well, some say that it is overhyped because it is rated very high in every Yoruba states.
Apparently, it is a very straightforward meal to cook but stressful while cooking.
Also, you do not any ingredients aside from your Yam, Mortar and Pestle.
The first step to making Iyan is boiling your yam. Since it will be grinded, so many people make the mistake of not boiling it well but you make sure to boil every part of the Yam till it gets soft just like I did mine in the picture.
Once the yam gets very soft, it can be put off fire for pounding. If the yam isn’t soft, the pounding process won’t be easy and the Pounded Yam won’t be fluffy like it should be so the softness of the Yam is an important aspect of making Pounded Yam and once it’s soft, it’s essy to make.
I do not have the big Mortar and Pestle. I have the smallest size which makes it more difficult to pound the yam but pounding it well will give me the result I want.
I started putting my Yams into the Mortar one by one and I was pounding it hard with the help of the pestle. Putting it one by one is as a result of the small size of the Mortar.
After pounding for minutes, it later gave a result of a fluffy pounded Yam. Pounded Yam can be taken with various soups but the one which I had at my disposal then was Efo Riro or vegetable soup which is sitting right beside my Pounded Yam and their combination is a great one.
That’s the simple way of making Pounded Yam which only has the stress of pounding and if that has been achieved, it will give you a fluffy Pounded Yam with no lumps.
Thanks for reading. See you next time.
