Heyooo, another beautiful dish from the Yoruba culture here in Nigeria I fell in love with and replicated my way in a healthy and low calorie method. Asaro is the yoruba name for Yam porridge. The beautiful thing about this particular yoruba style Asaro is that the yams are not whole, they are mashed, which makes it so tasty and appetizing and another distinctive thing about it is that, its combined with a fried tomato stew or pepper sauce which then makes it Asaro ati ata din din. You could add as much orishi-rishi(different) proteins as you like, like fish fishes, meat and even chicken.
Now...as usual with me, I give my own healthy twist to every thing I'm cooking, I made use of some natural spices at home, with a little tomato and chili peppers, i didn't fry or do a stew with it. Yes doing a stew or a pepper stew would be a good idea, i have a way I do my stews and sauces and i don't really need to fry, they taste great by the way. But i decided not to do a stew for this recipe but made use of tomatoes and shombo. Then I boiled sardine ice fish, allowed to cool, de-boned and then scattered or shredded with my hands. You could also decide to add some dry fish to it, I would have added but I didn’t have at that moment. This recipe came out so tasty and delicious.
Try to use a little red oil regardless of the size of your pot make sure that to reduce the calorie content, your red oil should not more than 2 medium size cooking spoon ( that’s even still too much but it shouldn’t exceed that).
Another amazing spice I added was Tiger’s product- curry masala. Masala is just Indians way of saying a combination of different natural herbs grounded together. I have been in love with TRS’s masala combo for a while now and that’s what I have been using and sometimes combine mine too.
But I was shopping in the market one day and saw that our famous Tiger brand that produce our normal curry and thyme, had a product of natural masala blend. Of course, I had to look at the ingredients like I always do, it was a combination of nutmeg, coriander, turmeric, fenugreek, cumin, mace, garlic, cinnamon, mustard, fennel, cardamom, rosemary, thyme and other herbs. I mean an explosion of natural spices and herbs and if you love spices like I do, you would want to buy every single one of that tiger product.
It was an amazing step up for TIGER brand, I decided to try out only 2 first and I can tell you it is one hundred percent great. For people like me who don’t cook with stock cubes, this is a wonderful masala combo to try out.
It added a lot of tastiness to this recipe, but if you can’t get this product, make sure some ginger and garlic and some black pepper,, if you have one is part of this dish. You can get them in powdery form or still as a plant, I usually have both powdery and the plant too, but I noticed over time that the most tasty and aromatic outcome comes out when your garlic, Ginger or Turmeric are still as a plant and then you cut, blend or grater yourself into your dish. But regardless you would still have an amazing Asaro Ata din din…lolzzz.
So lets get cooking…
Ingredients
1) Yams ( cut out into four)
2) Fish ( any iced fish of your fish)
3) Red oil
4) Salt
5) Ghana pepper
6) Fresh shombo ( chili pepper)
7) Cut out or blended ginger and garlic
8) Some Fresh tomatoes
9) Curry masala combo ( Tiger product)
Prep
1) Boil your fish firstly with some water and salt and a little pepper till its quite soft and whitish. then leave to cool, remove the bones and then shred with your HANDS.
2) Cut the yams into small pieces, like into four pieces from each round cut out. (I really hope this is quite explanatory).
3) Add water to cover the yams to a large level and sprinkle a little salt, then boil on medium heat.
4) When the yams are properly soft and still has enough water, add your onions and a little dry pepper. If you are adding dry fish or smoked fish, this is the time to add it, then cover and live to boil.
5) Check again after few minutes and if the water has reduced to almost the level of the yams, add in your red oil, your diced tomatoes or blended tomato and shombo(chili peppers), curry masala combo, some salt, blended crayfish, ginger and garlic.
6) Add in the fish stock then stir. Because we want the yams very soft, add some more to float above, stir and then leave to boil.
7) Check after very few minutes and if the water floats a little bit above the yam and it has started cuddling, stir with a wooden spoon or big cooking spoon, mashing it at the same time.
8) After doing the above you would have discovered that everything would be mashed but some yams would still be whole. If you still want everything mashed keep stirring and mashing. Taste also to make sure nothing is lacking.
9) Lastly add your shredded fish, stir a little and bring down from heat.
Hint:
You can boil some fresh vegetables if you want to, and serve with your Asaro ata din din. Like I said been an Igbo female our porridge has go with veges. And from the kind of home I grew up in we believe in vegetables and that it is healthy and necessary to be eaten with any dish at all.
Serve and enjoy.
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