AMALA- HOW TO PREPARE

Amala is a household food of the Yorubas in the Western part of Nigeria. Amala is brownish or black in colour. It is a thick paste made from yam flour, see my post on how to make yam flour. The Yorubas relish amala so much that a discussion on amala without a Yoruba man/woman present is incomplete. Amala is in the category of food termed ‘swallow’ in Nigeria. If you have not eaten/tasted amala, you are missing a lot! Lol. However, it is not too late, here are the step by step guides on how to prepare amala.

Things needed:

1. 2 cups of yam flour/elubo
2. water
3. wooden spatula or its equivalent

         

• Place about 3 cups of water on your cooker, bring it to boil

• Start adding the yam flour bit by bit and stir continuously as you do.

• Lower the cooker heat. If you prefer having your amala thicker, then you need to add more flour. Continue the stir until you have a smooth thick paste.

• Cover the pot, increase the cooker heat a bit and allow it to cook for 2-3 minutes while you turn it intermittently, set down from the cooker, do the final stir/turn and here… our yummy amala is ready!

Amala can be served/eaten with ewedu soup and obe ata(pepper stew), egusi soup or any soup at all.   

PRESERVATION: If you are the busy type like myself, you can make more quantity of amala that can last you for 2 or more days. All you need do:

• Make sure you made the amala thicker
• wrap as many as you want to preserve in a transparent cellophane bag or foil(see picture), put them in a plastic container or a polythene bag and refrigerate (better in the freezer).

This saves me a lot of energy and time since all I do is pick a wrap( or the much you want), put it in a stainless bowl, place the bowl in a pot of water and leave it on your cooker to steam for about 5 minutes or more depending on how cold it is. NB: do not add water into the stainless bowl. I would have recommended using the microwave for this purpose but since microwaved food is not 100% healthy, you can opt for the above method.

 

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