Hi Guys😂🙌🏽 (According to our distinguished Social media Influencers) Anyways your favorite foodie, Joycey is here again with a delicious food recipe this time all the way from South Eastern Nigeria and Particularly Nsukka, Enugu State.
Ayaraya Ji is a Yam or cocoyam pottage mixed with boiled pigeon peas( called fio-fio). It is one of the most traditional meals in Igboland. Whilst the process is quite rigorous thus making it a once in a while dish, it is a delicious and healthy brain food. Yam is a great source of carbohydrates and the Pigeon peas are an excellent source of Potassium, it reduces blood pressure, prevents anemia, aids weight loss, improves digestive health etc.
Ingredients
4 cups of pigeon peas
- Half tuber of yam
- One large bulb of Onion
- Yellow and Red bell peppers
- One tablespoonful of Uziza
- Ukpaka or Ugba – Made from Oil bean, shredded. I use the well fermented one to bring out the aroma in the food. It’s not advisable to use the unfermented akpaka as this may add its bitter taste in the food. The fermented one is usually very soft and oozing.
- Two milk cups of fresh red palm oil
- One stock cube (I used only 1 cube. I forgot to remove one before snapping)
- Salt to taste
- Teaspoon of Cameroon pepper.
Procedure
- De-stone the fio-fio (pigeon peas) and pour in a pot of boiling water, boil till its soft.
- Cut your yam into pieces and place on top of the boiling fio-fio before it finally gets cooked, so the water cooks the yam. At this point, you can add salt by sprinkling it over the yam so it penetrates the yam down to the beans. Do not add all the salt needed for the cooking as you will need to add salt when preparing the sauce
- When the peas and yam are done, set aside and then mash the yam in a mortar. Do not mash much so the yam wouldn’t turn to pounded yam. Some people use knife to cut the yam into pieces, but using mortar and pestle is good, giving it the local effect needed.
- To prepare the sauce, cut the onions into tiny pieces as if you are preparing stew and them grind the balls of pepper and a little more onions together.
- Pound the uziza as well.
- Place a dry pot on the burner and add the palm oil
- After 1 minute, add the onions. We add the onions immediately so as not to allow the palm oil to bleach as it affects the taste and colour of the dish.
- Add the grounded pepper and onions after 2 minutes, add the uziza
- Now you can add the stock cube and stir.
- Add a little salt, bearing in mind the initially added salt to the pigeon peas and yam.
- Add the ukpaka/ugba/oil bean
- Pour the mashed yam and pigeon peas to the oil sauce
- Use wooden spoon to mix together until the sauce is evenly distributed.
- Serve and Enjoy!
