Iyán àti obè ẹ̀gúsí — pounded yam and melon-seed soup
A pounded yam paste, white and elastic, taken in small balls to dip into a green and velvety soup of ground melon seeds, bound with red palm oil and spiked with fermented iru.
A pounded yam paste, white and elastic, taken in small balls to dip into a green and velvety soup of ground melon seeds, bound with red palm oil and spiked with fermented iru.
Watch the mortar sing! My child pounds the yam until it sticks to the pestle like a promise — that's how you make iyán, no other way. The egusi seed is ground fine, thrown into the boiling red oil, and the iru, ah, the iru! that seed which stinks before it perfumes, that is what gives the soup its deep tongue. Roll the ball between your fingers, dip, swallow without chewing — he who chews iyán insults the pounder. And do not forget: I, Eshu, have tasted the oil before you, at the crossroads.
- •White yam (isu) — two large tubers (staple starch, pounded into iyán)
- •Ground melon seeds (egusi) — two calabashes (fat and umami binder)
- •Red palm oil (epo pupa) — a good ladleful (body and colour)
- •Fermented locust bean (iru) — a few (fermented umami, vegetable salt)
- •Green leaves (efó, type ugu/wild spinach) — one bunch (greens)
- •Smoked river fish — a few pieces (marine umami)
Iyán àti obè ẹ̀gúsí — pounded yam and melon-seed soup
A pounded yam paste, white and elastic, taken in small balls to dip into a green and velvety soup of ground melon seeds, bound with red palm oil and spiked with fermented iru.
Why this dish? Yam is the queen of the Yoruba country, and Eshu is everywhere on the paths between field and market. This daily soup, bound with melon seeds (egusi) and perfumed with fermented locust bean, is the dish found at every table where the god has first been greeted.
Watch the mortar sing! My child pounds the yam until it sticks to the pestle like a promise — that's how you make iyán, no other way. The egusi seed is ground fine, thrown into the boiling red oil, and the iru, ah, the iru! that seed which stinks before it perfumes, that is what gives the soup its deep tongue. Roll the ball between your fingers, dip, swallow without chewing — he who chews iyán insults the pounder. And do not forget: I, Eshu, have tasted the oil before you, at the crossroads.
Ingredients (period version)
- White yam (isu) — two large tubers (staple starch, pounded into iyán)
- Ground melon seeds (egusi) — two calabashes (fat and umami binder)
- Red palm oil (epo pupa) — a good ladleful (body and colour)
- Fermented locust bean (iru) — a few (fermented umami, vegetable salt)
- Green leaves (efó, type ugu/wild spinach) — one bunch (greens)
- Smoked river fish — a few pieces (marine umami)
Ingredients
- White yam — 800 g (to boil then pound)
- Ground egusi seeds — 200 g (soup base)
- Red palm oil — 4 tbsp (colour and binder)
- Iru (fermented locust bean) — 1 tbsp (fermented umami)
- Spinach or pumpkin leaves (ugu) — 200 g (greens)
- Smoked fish — 150 g flaked (umami depth)
- Onion — 1 (aromatic base)
- Salt — to taste (seasoning)
Method
- Peel and cut the yam, boil until tender, then pound (or beat in a food processor) into a smooth, elastic paste: this is iyán.
- Heat the red palm oil, sauté the chopped onion and crushed iru.
- Mix the egusi seeds with a little water into a paste, add it and let it form small golden lumps.
- Add water or broth, add the smoked fish, simmer for 15 min.
- Stir in the green leaves at the end of cooking, season with salt.
- Serve the soup alongside a ball of iyán: take a piece of yam with your hand, make an indentation, dip.
How it was made : Iyán was pounded by two people in a large wooden mortar (odó), to the regular rhythm that still punctuates Yoruba villages. Egusi (seeds of an African cucurbit, not to be confused with New World squash) and iru, fermented for days, provided umami before any imported seasoning. No chili or tomato here: these American products only arrived after 1492.
The contemporary twist : Plate a quenelled ball of iyán and mirror-drizzle the egusi soup, a brushstroke of red palm oil placed like Eshu's signature.
Sources : Jessica B. Harris, The Africa Cookbook: Tastes of a Continent (1998)
Eshu · Charactorium