My Mother-in-law brought me 5 tubers of Yam. I'm not a very big fan of yam, but my husband practically grew up on it. A couple of days later we dropped her off at her aunt's place and the old lady was so pleased to see us, she gave six tubers. I had to laugh. Now its a race against the clock.
We were going to have Yam, no brainer that, but what to go with it. I had some flat crabs in the freezer as well as some smoked salmon. This is what I made ...
Ingredients:
5 medium crabs & 2 small ones
1/2 a large smoked Salmon
1 Tuber of Yam
2 medium Onions
10 medium Tomatoes
10 kpakpo shito (small green hot peppers)
2 Tablespoons Palm oil
1 Maggi cube
Salt
Wash and peel the yam, then cut it into 1 inch cubes.
Put the yam cubes in a pot. Add a bit os salt and sugar (about a teaspoonful of each) and enough water to cover it. Boil for about 20 minutes. Drain and keep in a food flask or warmer.
Take the head off, remove the intestines (the fish is smoked with the inside intact to maintain it's shape). rinse it off gently. Break it into smaller pieces if you want.
Remove the little strip of shell that runs down the middle and pull out all the whispy/stringy (reproductive organs) parts. Remove the pointy segment at the tip of each leg as well as the shell bits covering the mouth area. these openings allow the flavour to penetrate as the food stews. Be sure to rub between the shell and legs to remove caked mud, then rinse thoroughly.
Chop the onions into bits ...
... and blend the tomatoes and pepper.
Heat the palmoil then add he onions. Fry untill the start getting soft and translucent.
Then add the blended tomatoes.
Simmer the gravy till it dries and almost begins to stick, then add the Maggi cube and salt, a little water and let it simmer some more.
Add the crabs, cover and lower the fire. let it simmer till the crabs turn red.
Add the Salmon and allow to simmer covered a few minutes longer to allow it to absorb the stew flavour.
Serve with the Yam cubes. Use your fingers for this feast. You are going to want to dig in!!!
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