Fresh African Yam Tubers (Puna Yam) – 2 Tubers to 50lb Box

Yam

Fresh West African puna yam, whole tubers. Not sweet potato, not the orange thing American supermarkets label yam. This is Dioscorea, the real one, white and starchy inside with rough brown skin.

Yam is not a side dish in West Africa. It is the centre of the plate, and in Igbo land the New Yam Festival exists because the harvest genuinely mattered enough to build a calendar around.

How to choose and store

• A good tuber is heavy for its size, firm all over, with no soft or damp patches.
• Never refrigerate a whole yam. The cold ruins the texture and it turns black. Keep it somewhere cool, dark and airy.
• Once cut, wrap the exposed face and refrigerate that portion. Use within a few days.

What to make

• Pounded yam. Boil and pound. The real thing, not the instant flour.
• Boiled yam and egg sauce. Breakfast in a great many houses.
• Yam porridge, ji mmiri oku. Cooked down with palm oil, pepper and scent leaf.
• Asaro. The Yoruba mashed pottage.
• Roasted yam with red palm oil and pepper, or fried into dundun.

Boiling it properly

1. Peel thickly. The layer just under the skin is bitter and does not soften.
2. Cut into rounds and rinse to remove surface starch.
3. Boil in salted water for fifteen to twenty minutes until a knife goes through easily.
4. Do not overcook or it collapses.

Product details

• Also known as: puna yam, white yam, ji, isu, African yam
• Sizes: 2 tubers (5-8lb), 3 tubers (7-10lb), 6 tubers (17-20lb), 50lb box of 10-12
• Storage: Cool, dark and airy. Never the fridge.

Shipped from Nexxtmart to anywhere in the United States. Fresh produce, packed carefully for transit.