Fried yam is a popular street snack in Nigeria, it is commonly served with fried plantain and fried sauce. I have made a special sauce just for you and I am sure you would love it
I fried yam the other day and I am still covering my eyes till date. Is it safe to call me a food blogger or am I still getting there? One thing I noticed since I started food blogging is that I want everything to be perfect. I don't want to plate like I'm serving in a cafeteria but like I'm being watched and my customers are paying a lot to see my food pictures as well as my recipes.
I made this fried yam recently and it was almost perfect until I got a phone call from someone I couldn't refuse to talk to. Anyway, whilst on the phone, I couldn't attend to my fried yam and half of it was overdone which is not bad if you ask me but as a professional, that wasn't good enough. I managed to save the other half but I gave up on taking pictures and all. On my next attempt to blogging fried yam and my special ata didin, I recycled the oil I used to fry the first one but forgot to sieve the dirt out hence the spots on these pictures. Really in real life, we would recycle vegetable oil especially when it has just been used once so I thought why don't I just do it and be real.
So today’s post is on how to fry yam and getting the street food feel. It is very easy but you will need to pay attention to it. I call my sauce special because it’s indeed special, it is very easy and the flavours do come through. The next time you have a guest, especially the ones you know hardly cooks but loves to eat, lol; wow them with this easy and evergreen fried yam recipe and see that the lord is good. Wink
Ingredients for fried yam and plantain
A tuber of yam or less (depending on the size of the people you are catering for)
Salt
Oil for frying
Plantain
water
Ingredients for the fried sauce
3-4 medium-size tomatoes, sliced
1 bouillon cube
1 large onion, chopped
½ cup palm oil
Plantain
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1-2 tbsp ground crayfish
How to fry yam
Peel and cut yam into half, slice the halved yam into thin slices about 10-15mm thickness
Rinse yam till water runs clean. Add enough water to cover and add salt to taste
Place a frying pan on medium-high heat, add enough oil and heat till hot
Carefully drop sliced yams to hot oil (please be really careful with hot oil) and reduce the heat
After about 2 minutes, add a little bit of water to the yam being fried, it would foam on top, don't worry it will settle down in minutes.
The trick at achieving a soft fried yam is by adding water to the oil, as odd as this sound it is the best way to do it. If you have seen where the Iya onidundun as they are called fry their yams, you would know that at intervals, they add salted water to the frying yam. This is what makes it tasty and soft.
The yam will soak up the water and the oil will remain for subsequent use.
Pay attention to the yam if you don’t want to be left with golden dry yam
Do a fork test on some of the sliced yams and if the fork pierces through, then it is ready to be strained out of oil.
Repeat this process till you have exhausted the yam
See the difference between the two shades of yam...
How to fry plantain.
You can use the same oil you used for frying the yam to fry the plantain. heat oil till hot (I recommend you fry the plantain before frying the yam)
using a sharp knife, cut both ends of the plantain, make an incision on the skin from top to bottom and peel the plantain.
Slice the plantain diagonally to about half an inch.
Season with salt if you want, I hardly do this
Carefully add sliced plantain to the hot oil and fry on both sides until golden brown
Remove plantain from the hot oil and drain on a kitchen towel. reserve to serve with fried yam
How to make the sauce (My special sauce)
Place a pan on medium heat, add palm oil and allow to heat for about 3-4 minutes
Add chopped tomatoes and onions
Followed by cayenne pepper if using, leave to cook for about 10 minutes
Add seasoning and salt to taste
Add ground crayfish
Continue to cook till palm oil floats on top of the sauce
Plate up your fried yam and enjoy
If you want the street vibe to continue, serve on an old newspaper, cover it up and open after a minute or two.
Other Nigerian Street Food You Should Try
Fried Yam (Dundun) and Fried Plantain
Ingredients
Ingredients for fried yam and plantain
- A tuber of yam or less depending on the size of the people you are catering for
- Salt
- Oil for frying
- Plantain
- Water
Ingredients for the fried sauce
- 3-4 medium size tomatoes sliced
- 1 bouillon cube
- 1 large onion chopped
- ½ cup palm oil
- 1 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1-2 tbsp ground crayfish
Instructions
How to fry plantain.
- You can use the same oil you used for frying the yam to fry the plantain. heat oil till hot (I recommend you fry the plantain before frying the yam)
- using a sharp knife, cut both ends of the plantain, make an incision on the skin from top to bottom and peel the plantain.
- Slice the plantain diagonally to about half an inch.
- Season with salt if you want, I hardly do this
- Carefully add sliced plantain to the hot oil and fry on both sides until golden brown
- Remove plantain from the hot oil and drain on a kitchen towel. reserve to serve with fried yam
How to Fry yam
- Peel and cut yam into half, slice the halved yam into thin slices about 10-15mm thickness
- Rinse yam till water runs clean. Add enough water to cover and add salt to taste
- Place a frying pan on medium-high heat, add enough oil and heat till hot
- Carefully drop sliced yams to hot oil (please be careful with hot oil and reduce the heat
- After about 2 minutes, add a little bit of water to the yam being fried, it would foam on top, don’t worry it will settle down in minutes.
- The trick at achieving a soft fried yam is by adding water to the oil, as odd as this sound it is the best way to do it. If you have seen where the Iya onidundun as they are called fry their yams, you would know that at intervals, they add salted water to the frying yam. This is what makes it tasty and soft.
- The yam will soak up the water and the oil will remain for subsequent use.Pay attention to the yam if you don’t want to be left with golden dry yamDo a fork test on some of the sliced yams and if the fork pierces through, then it is ready to be taken out of the oil.
- Repeat this process till you have exhausted the yam
- Drain yam on kitchen towel
How to make the fried sauce (My special sauce)
- Place a pan on medium heat, add palm oil and allow to heat for about 3-4 minutes
- Add chopped tomatoes and onions
- Followed by cayenne pepper if using, leave to cook for about 10 minutes
- Add bouillon cube and salt to taste, then add ground the crayfish. Stir to combine
- Continue to cook till palm oil floats on top of the sauce
- Plate up your fried yam and enjoy
- If you want the street vibe to continue, serve on an old newspaper, cover it up and open after a minute or two.
This fried yam and sauce recipe was updated with new photographs in May 2019. Here is one of the images I took originally for this recipe. Not bad eh!
If you try my fried yam, fried plantain and sauce recipe, kindly leave feedback or #myactivekitchen on Instagram so I can see what you have been cooking. Thank you and see you on my next post
This is delicious can't wait to try mine, thanks for that adding of water while frying.
You explains better
Thank you, Gloria
For the ata din din, are we to use blended tomatoes sauce? You didn't mention it or is the chopped tomatoes enough to make the stew?
This is the real thing here. well done dear
Thank you Chuka
this lady no go kill me with food oooo, see as this food they hungry me now, I beg jor for this food I must prepare it . 😀thanks babe.
Enter kitchen quick abeg. lol
Hmm. Abeg you're a food blogger joor! Palm oil and tomatoes. Sounds delish 😋
Thanks babe