How to Make Fried Yam and Pepper Sauce-Ata Dindin /Shito

Fried Yam is an easy dish to serve on its own or with other meals; nothing can compare a good fried yam recipe when you are looking for home-style comfort food.

Yam is a staple in Nigeria. A great number of yams in the market are grown in the Northern parts of the country.

I love eating yam. My love for yam is beyond what you can fathom. I can cook, roast, pound and even fry it. Yam fries are my favorite.

At times, I combine with another tuber crop (potato) while cooking the yam.

Fried Yam and pepper sauce is a very popular Nigerian street food combo often sold on the roadsides of major cities.

Fried Yam called dundun in Yoruba is just as the name depicts, Fried Yam.

While pepper sauce, also known as chili sauce or hot sauce or Ata dindin in Yoruba, shito in Ghana, is any condiment, seasoning, or salsa made from chili peppers and other ingredients.

Boiled, fried or roast yam with hot pepper sauce is a meal for pepper lovers. The sauce is used to perfect this delicacy.

Served with fresh fish, Fried Plantain (Dodo) and a chilli sauce made from scratch, fried yam is a meal you will enjoy from start to finish.

Fried Yam Recipe

This recipe is an ode to the widespread dundun (fried yam) that is commonly sold on the roadside in old newspapers.

There are two ways of preparing fried yam:

Firstly, by frying chunks of raw yam in vegetable oil while the second method involves parboiling the yam first before deep frying to soften it

Both methods are good though some prefer the parboiling method because the yam comes out softer when compared to frying raw yam.

You need to fry the yam on low to medium heat, to allow it cook properly on the inside just as on the outside.

Frying the yam raw especially on high heat usually results in the yam not being properly cooked on the inside, though crisp on the outside.

 Ingredients

• 2 large cups of sliced yams
  Two medium fresh fish
  1 large fresh bell pepper (tatashe)
  4 medium fresh peppers (rodo)
• 2 medium fresh tomatoes
  3 medium garlic cloves
  1 medium onion
• ½ cup crayfish
  1 cup groundnut oil
  Seasoning/salt to taste

Method

• Firstly, wash and spice the fish, then fry and set aside.
• Secondly, peel the back of the yam, cut into round pieces and then slice into thin long pieces.
• Then, add some salt and soak the yam in a bowl of salted water for 15 minutes to help soften it a bit.
• Fourthly, blend the fresh tomatoes, pepper, onions, garlic, and crayfish into a mixture (don’t make it too smooth).
• Using a clean pot, add 1 cooking spoon of groundnut oil. Once hot, add some onions, the mixture blend and fry for 15 minutes until all the water is no more.
• After that, add seasoning and salt to taste. Fry for a minute and then remove from heat.
• Finally, put a clean frying pan on the fire. Then, add the groundnut oil when it is hot, add the yams and fry for 15 minutes (put a fork into the yams to confirm if it is soft) or better still, you can use a deep fryer.

Serve the fried yam, fish and chili sauce hot.