Benin – Igname Pilée

by Huyu Bob

Benin is an African country, found on the west part of the continent bordered to the northwest by Burkina Faso, Nigeria to the east and Togo to the west.  Igname Pilée means ground yam, it is found by the origin from French language to mean Yam or ground yam.

The dish signifies cultural meal as to many Benin inhabitants, yams were the most consumed meals. This character is even distributed to it’s neighbor countries like Nigeria.

Traditionally, Igname Pilée is normally prepared through mashing yams and cook them along with other ingredients on the same pot at the same time.

The cuisine holds several types that are influenced by the ingredients.

Normally the dish comprises of Yams, and meats or sometimes greens like the spotted picture on your left, whereby the total amount of greens added shows that Igname Pilée cuisine was prepared with high amount of greens.

Peanut butter is another essential ingredient to our cuisine, it acts as among the very identifier of the cuisine of Igname Pilée type. Preparing of Igname Pilée cuisine is sometimes needs much care as a little mess may diverge the truly taste of Igname Pilée cuisine. Welcome and follows me so that we can achieve what’s better to receive great thanks from out taste buds.

Ingredients

• 2 yams
• peanut butter
• 6 okra
• 1 chicken
• 2 medium onions
• 3 large tomatoes
• 1 Scotch bonnet pepper
• 1 ginger
• 1 seasoning cube
• 2 bay leaves
• chicken broth (1l)
• salt
• oil
• water

Cooking

• Wash to clean tomatoes, okras, onions, ginger and yams, cut if necessary.
• Peel yams and slice into cubes.
• Take chicken and chicken broth, onion, pepper, tomatoes and bay leaves together, cook until vegetables become soft and tender, it is usually between 15-17 minutes.
• Wind out vegetables and add seasonings into the soup, blend vegetables to mix with ginger.
• Lower heat, keep on another step, to prepare peanut butter.
• In a food processor, add 5-8 peanut butter table spoons and mix with water to form a nice paste.
• Add peanut into the soup and cook for about 20 minutes while covering the top and stirring at every minute to check for burns as peanut tend to burn easily.
• Note for oil separating from the soup, then add the okras and the seasonings, boil up for 15 minutes under low heat. Once done, set aside from heat.
• Boil yams in another pot until tender, it may consume 10 minutes less.
• Take the yam cubes to the food processor and blend to fine paste.
• Make a round shape from the Yam paste and serve warm with the soup.

Enjoy this taste from Benin on your table with friends and family.