You read that correctly. Read it first before you knock it. I promise you, you will be pleasantly surprised, and possibly shocked. Believe me, I was shocked too. Many of you probably already know that you can make Pounded Yam in a Food Processor. Click HERE for instructions. I would like to take a little credit for re-discovering that and bringing it back to people’s consciousness. Just a little credit. Hahahahahaha. Well, there has been some progress to that effect. I used to believe only a dough blade could produce smooth, stretchy pounded yam, But I have been proven wrong. I have even tested it myself countless times, and yes people, the knife blade produces gorgeous pounded yam.
Another tool you can use to make stress free and hot made in a flash pounded yam is to use a Stand Mixer. Yes, the type for making cakes, dough etc. You only need two attachments. The dough hook and the flat beater. Some say use the beater to mash the yam and then finish off with the dough hook to form it into a ball, others reverse the process. I have seen living proof of both, so choose whichever method works for you. I will soon be in possession of a stand mixer, and I will make pounded yam and post pictures.
Do, you know that you can also use a Hand Mixer to make pound yam? Yes you can. If your hand mixer comes with the long thin dough hook, it will also make very stretchy pounded yam in minutes. I have even experimented with my Hand Blender. Not the blender itself mind you, but the chopper bowl. Most hand blenders come with 2 extra attachments. The whisk and the chopper bowl. I have a picture of the chopper bowl HERE. It is quick and handy kitchen tool to cut down chopping time to seconds. You can also use it to make pounded yam.
the long bit on top is the hand blender motor. It has removable attachments. In this picture, I attached the big chopper bowl. See the knife blade in the bowl? Yes, it makes pounded yam. Will put up pictures in my Afia Efere (white soup) post.
Today though, I am going totally off-board. You have to praise the ingenuity of Nigerian women. A member of SYTCC, Titi posted a picture of pounded yam made in her blender, but not just an ordinary blender but a Ninja blender. A Ninja blender is a little special because the blade is not flat, like traditional blenders. Its own blade is really long and thin. See picture below. When I saw the picture, I said of course, this can make pounded yam easy peasy. This is not a traditional blender.
image courtesy: www.ninjakitchen.com
A few weeks later, someone came with a claim that she made pounded yam using a traditional blender, and I was really quite skeptical. Unfortunately the pictures attached weren’t clear and I shrugged it off, but recently other women have been making claims, but with no pictures attached and I thought hmmmmn, this one I have to try to believe. Not many things challenge me like food does. To say I was astounded is probably an understatement. I had to use the Motion Capture mode of my camera to shoot live pictures, so you would believe it.
I can confidently tell you that it works, and I will point at how, with extra tips and what to look out for. If you feel you have been marginalised, because you don’t have any of the devices I stated above, well you are in luck now. Welcome to the Club of Real Pounded Yam eaters. I have to insist though that by watching how it makes this, your blender has to have a powerful motor, because it will struggle at the beginning and possibly burn out. I don’t want to be responsible for anyone having to buy a new blender. I will go so far as to recommend from 300W upwards. I stand corrected, I had initially written 600W. I always thought my blender was 600W. I just checked the Philips Website, and it is 300W. If you have a low wattage blender, like mine, unless you have been using it for ages and trust it, be careful. Caveat Emptor i.e. be warned. Oh, one more big ups for my blender. I have been using it since 2007 and it has done everything. It can also be used to peel the skin off beans. Yes it can, Yes it ca. Click HERE for instructions
How To
1. Cut the yam into pieces and boil. When it has cooked through, cut into smaller pieces, using a table knife, while the yams are still in the pot. This is essential. You want to make sure they are hot, so at no time should you take the yams out and cut on a plate. Turn the heat down to low, to ensure the yams remain hot and go get your blender.
2. Add 2 – 3 pieces of yam to the blender, cover it and turn it on for a few seconds and stop. DO NOT add water. Repeat it again for a few seconds and stop. This is to protect the engine. With each session of the engine being on, you will see the blades crush the yam and start to form a ball.
Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: i will recommend that you experiment first with this, to see how it works. Don’t get too excited. Start with a few pieces from start to finish, then you can get bolder. See pictures below. The yams have been crushed and are forming into a ball. Give yourself a few seconds to be amazed. Hehehehehehe. Keep at it for a few seconds and that ball will turn smooth and proper like pounded yam. I was too amazed to take the picture of the complete product.
3. Scoop out the ball, and start again. This time, with 3 pieces, repeat step two, but this time, after the first few seconds of blending, when you can see that the yams have crushed, open the blender and leave it open. See picture below. Once you have this, you know you are good to go. Stop the blender, add a few more pieces of yam and repeat the dance again, until you have quite enough crushed yams in the blender, then you keep the engine running and let it pull together.
4. The crushed yam pieces will go from the picture you can see above, to the one below. Here is where my Motion Capture component comes in. See people, how shocking is that? As the engine is rotating the blades, the crushed yam will be pulled together to form a ball, and that ball will be rolling around, and rolling around, and stretching to form pounded yam. The flipping thing works.
Still in shock? Enlarge the picture if you want. Loooool.
See it rolling and stretching, and rolling and stretching, and rolling and stretching. All this is happening in a very short space of time.
…………….and there you have it. Pounded Yam. Do you believe now?
Because you are going to have to scoop out with your hands, it will be a little messy on the plate, so I advice you scoop it out unto a plastic sheet, you know the types we wrap starchy solids in, or even a rinsed supermarket bag. Once you have all the pounded yam done, cover it in the plastic wrap, and mould in your hands to look pretty, and that’s all.
Yes, it is probably a little fiddly than the other devices, because you have to start slow first before it kicks into a ball, but who cares really. You get your hot pounded yam, without spending extra money on another kitchen device. The beauty of this is that, I not only used old leftover yam which had been sitting on my kitchen cart for days in this cold weather, making it even more tough, it was also the bottom part of the yam, which traditionally is quite difficult to make pounded yam with because it tends to be much tougher and more fibrous. So, even with tough yam, it works. Well, this isn’t manual pounding, an engine is involved. BOOM!!!!
We now have a list of devices, pick which ever you want
Food Processor
Stand Mixer
Hand Mixer
Hand Blender Chopper Bowl
Ninja Blender
Traditional blender
I can already imagine many of you rushing out to buy yam this weekend. Well good, it’s about time. Throw away your packet of Poundo Flour while you are at it. Please try it and send me pictures. Welcome to the club of The Real Pounded Yam Eaters.