Recipe #37: Mpotompoto: African cocoyam (taro) "goulash"

I started out confident that I could write about both nyoma and  mpotompoto.  Now I realize what I vaguely suspected before: they're the same thing. Several Ghanaians have confirmed this. Barbara Baeta once told me that when it is made with yam, the Ewes call it teba ("yam mud") and that it is also known in Ewe as dablui, which means "cook it and mix it up." Barbara describes it as a kind of Ghanaian goulash.

In Twi, poto means "to mash/grind." I love the reduplication.  However, the root vegetable used is not necessarily mashed, just cooked in broth until the  cocoyam (a kind of taro, aka dasheen, eddo),  or (African) yam or white sweet potato, or even cassava, disintegrates. Mpotompoto or nyoma is also recommended as a weaning food for young children. I find it a light, comforting one-pot meal.

There are, of course, many variations. Here is a simple one using dried ground hot red pepper, cocoyam, palm oil, salt, tomatoes and dried shrimp. Our local chain grocery stores do not carry cocoyams, but I found some beautiful ones at a nearby Asian market.

Ingredients:

about 3 cocoyams (to get a pound when peeled) [or use African yam or white sweet potato]
1 medium onion (about 4 oz)
a couple of tomatoes (about 4 oz) [NOTE: I used cherry tomatoes, since that's what I had handy]
1/4 cup dried pounded shrimps or dried herrings [OR, if you must, substitute a shrimp-flavored seasoning cube]
1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste

Pound the shrimp, if whole, in a mortar and pestle (I break off the head and end of the tail first, but that's just me)
Wash and peel the cocoyams (I use a potato peeler) and cut into1/2 inch cubes.
Peel the onion, leaving it whole.
Rinse the tomatoes, leaving them whole.

Put the diced cocoyams, whole onion and tomatoes in a small pot with 5 cups of water. Bring it to a boil, then lower the heat  and cook  until the cocoyam is soft (20-30 minutes).

Remove the tomatoes and onions (I use a slotted spoon) and grind them (I use a mini food processor or blender), then return them to the pot.
Add the pounded shrimp, salt, red pepper and about 1/4 red palm oil (or less).
Let the mixture simmer briefly to blend the flavors. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary.

Enjoy!

Another way to prepare nyoma or mpotompoto is to boil the root vegetable separately, and make a gravy with 1/2 c palm or other vegetable oil, frying the onion a few minutes, then adding sliced tomatoes (and other seasonings as desired, such as ginger, garlic, etc.), then mixing everyting together after the cocoyam, or yam, etc., is tender.

Finally, a third way to do it (and perhaps the most common) is to omit precooking the cocoyam and simply make the gravy, then add additional water and cook the cocoyam in it.

Recipe #36: Nyoma (African yam pottage/soup)

When I lived in Ghana in the 1970s my future sister-in-law Afua made a comforting one-pot dish with (African) yam called nyoma. It is quite similar to the  mpotompoto mentioned in my last posting, but I've decided to feature nyoma first. Sometimes called yam soup, it's actually more of a pottage.

When I asked about nyoma during a luncheon at Flair, a visitor, Mrs. Mabel Aboagye-Darko, told me: first, nyoma is the Akwapim Twi name (my husband from Adukrom in the Eastern Region, and speaks this version of Twi), but that Ashanti Twi speakers call it mpihu; ingredients (for the Ashanti version) include smoked dried fish (cleaned, but with the bones), whole onions, tomatoes, red chili peppers (or green kpakpo shito), salt and bushmeat. She said to peel, wash and chop the yams, and put them on the fire to cook in some water, then add all the other ingredients. When the tomatoes, peppers, and onions are soft, remove and grind them (in an asanka, I imagine) and return to the pot. To serve, remove the yams into the asanka, add a little soup and mash the yams. Finally, heat a little palm oil in a frying pan, add some chopped onions and fry together, then add to the soup and yam.

Nigerians make a similar dish, and as always, ingredients and preparation techniques vary.

Here's the version I made recently--after 4 unsuccessful weekly trips to our local supermarket to find an appropriate yam (imported from Mexico) that wasn't rotten, I finally found a small one that was okay, but not great. How I miss the African market that was here last year--Sore used to travel to New York and New Jersey to bring us fresh yams direct from Ghana!

At any rate, I used what I had on hand to go with the yam: salted herrings, local grass-fed beef, fresh habanero pepper, a yellow onion, some palm oil, and canned plum tomatoes.

Ingredients

~10 oz. stewing beef

~1 pound of yam

2-3 salted herrings (see photo)

1 large onion (~10 ounces)

1 habanero pepper (or to taste)

1 clove of garlic (optional)

1/2 teaspoon of grated ginger (optional)

a few drained peeled, canned plum tomatoes (~4 ounces)

3-4 Tablespoons palm (or other vegetable) oil

Preparations

Put the salted herrings into a small saucepan, cover them with water, and simmer them for a few minutes to remove excess saltiness.

Peel and slice the onion. Put half of the onion into a soup pot. Peel and rinse the yam, cut it into 1/2 inch cubes, and place it into the pot with about 4 cups of water (enough to cover the yam). Cut the beef into small cubes, and add them to the pot. Remove the salted fish from the saucepan, break it into pieces and add to the pot. Bring the water to a boil, then lower the heat to simmer. I don't like tomato seeds, so I forced the canned tomatoes through a strainer into the broth. (Note: Traditionally, people would just toss the whole pepper and tomato into the soup and grind them when they get soft.) Let the soup simmer until the meat and yam are tender.

While the soup is simmering, if you have a mini-food processor, grind the pepper, garlic and ginger together (or mince and grate them), then heat the palm or other vegetable oil in a small frying pan, add the remaining sliced onion and spices and fry briefly, then add them to the soup pot and let the flavors blend for a few minutes. Adjust salt and (red) pepper to taste.

This fed 3 adults (my hungry college-aged nephew, my husband, and me).

Variations:  mash the yam with a masher or spoon before serving it; add some cooked dried beans; substitute cocoyams (taro) or cassava. Has anyone ever  tried making this using potatoes?