WHITE YAM AND FISH SAUCE -YAM DISH 4- "5 THINGS TO DO WITH YAM TUBERS"

YAM DISH NUMBER 4: White yam and fish sauce

My  Yam and fish sauce dish is one of the major meals that gets me compliments.(both from home and from exes..yeah my ex boyfriends loved my cooking..maybe that's why they became boyfriends...who knows...but trust me, i was a serious attention seeker who reveled in how i had them licking plates and hands, after i was done destroying their palettes with my amazing dishes....well their word , not mine...hehehe..).

 This particular dish was one of my mums favorite and i grew up looking forward to Saturdays(that was the only day we had yam and fish stew).
The way she did it for us had my sisters and i scrapping burnt onions from the pot..i believe i might have even drank a bit of the fish oil left over (if you know Nigerians... you know we love to fry...and our oil is always seasoned enough to drink)...I cringe at the thought right now though..

Anyway....enough of my rant. Let me teach you how to make my own version of yam and fish sauce(a.k.a sardine stew as i call it)

INGRIDIENTS
Boiled yam ingredients
One whole yam tuber
3 table spoons of brown or white sugar
2teaspoons of salt
4 or 5 cups of water (based on how big the yam is)

Fish Sauce ingreidients
7 canned sardines in vegetable oil or 3 Deboned Boiled Titus fishes (clean fish, add 2 stock cubes, a dash of salt and a cup of water. Boil fish for 15 minutes. Allow to cool and break fish into tiny pieces, ensuring you get rid of all the bones)
1/4 cup of olive or vegetable oil.
3 stock cube
Quarter a teaspoon of salt
5 scotch bonnets , 3 tomatoes, 1 onion, 2 big red sweet peppers ( Blend all this with half a cup of water to give you a thick paste)
Some Diced onions ( maybe half a bulb)
Half a cup of crayfish (blended or whole)

PROCESS

YAM
To prepare the Yam, Slice the yam in rounds, and peel off the skin by cutting round the yam about half a centimeter deep, Once you have peeled everything, Further cut the rounds into 4 pieces each and rinse thoroughly under cold water.
Combine all the boiled yam ingredients, and boil for 20 minutes.
Test to see if the yam is boiled by putting a fork through some of the pieces. You want the yam to be very soft but not mushy. If you are satisfied by how soft it is, set aside. i prefer the yam to be left in the water, but if you prefer a firmer consistency, drain out the water from the yam and set aside.




FISH SAUCE
To prepare the fish sauce, start by heating oil in a pan for about 1 minute. Add the diced onions and allow that to fry for another minute. Throw in your blended pepper into the heated oil and then fry for bout 15 minutes. make sure you stir the fry up once in a while to ensure it is not burning or sticking to the bottom of the pan (decrease heat if you need to). Add your  crayfish ,stock cube and salt to the fried pepper and stir, then allow mixture to fry for a further 3 minutes before you add your deboned fish. Stir in the fish and allow mixture to cook for about 2 minutes more and then turn off the heat. Your Fish sauce is done.


Serve together.