Ikokore

Ikokore is a yam porridgde made from water yam. It is common to the ijebu tribe in Nigeria. I remember my dad used to sing “if you marry ijebu woman you just give her ikokore, if you marry ekiti woman you must give her pounded yam”. Anyway it was just a song that I remembered… let’s head to the kitchen and start cooking.

Equipments/utensils

There isn’t much equipment/ utensils required for this meal. Just your everyday pot, kitchen spoons and dishes.

Ikokore ingredients

To make you meal taste nice, you need lots of fishes/meat/chicken/cowhide (ponmo) to put inside it. It’s not necessary but I feel it makes your food richer and provides protein too.

• The water yam: you can’t make ikokore without your major ingredient. So yes the yam is really important.
• Fish/chicken/meat: all you have to do is pick one.
• Blended pepper( A little rodo, a little tatashe with onions should be blended together)
• Palm oil
• Magii and salt

Procedure

Alright now that all our ingredients are assembled at one side of the kitchen, let’s get cooking.

1. Peel your water Yam
2. Rinse your yam
3. Grate your water yam
4. place a clean pot on your stove/burner
5. Heat the pot to dry up any water residue
6. Pour your blended pepper and fry for few minutes
7. Add two kitchen spoons of soup if you have some at home but it’s optional
8. Add your smoked fish and leave to fry
9. Using one of your hand, roll some of the grated yam into a ball and drop inside the pot
10. Repeat step 8 until all the grated yams are int the pot in a ball form
11. Cook for 20min
12. Stir continously
13. Add a cube or two cubes of magii and a pinch of salt.
14. Taste to see if it’s perfect
15. Serve with cold water