Dooney’s Corned Beef Stew and Coconutty boiled Yam

Hello Tribe, I hope your week is progressing well. Mine is going great by the way, courtesy the Wayfair publication (HERE) and discovering Aduna via the Hemsley sisters IG page. I adore those girls by the way. A lucky star is obviously shining on them and I pray my time comes soon, because I look at them sometimes and just hope. Thankfully I’ve stopped querying when will it be my turn, because such thoughts are of ingratitude, and will never serve you well. I am grateful for how far I have come. If you don’t learn to be grateful when you have small, you will never have it big, because only gratitude brings you more. A formula for life that has been in existence for ages, but only practiced by a few, so it is to keep doing what I do, the doors will open shortly.

Today I bring you my corned beef stew. it is such a versatile recipe that works for whatever protein you choose to use, from fish, to other forms of meat and even eggs. My mother’s corned beef stew though, can we stop for a second and say LEGENDARY!!!! Some day I will share my story about my hate affair with food. Oh, it will be an interesting read, cos you won’t be expecting half of what I would write. If you have a fussy eater on your hands now, don’t despair, hey look at me. From the girl who hated food, to a food blogger. Stranger things have happened. Lol. My mum would serve me yam and corned beef stew, and I will look at the yam with such loathing, push it aside, then proceed to eating just the corned beef stew, with such relish, and then tell Mummy I was done. She would look at me with such incredulity and say “so, what am i supposed to do with the yam, throw it away”. Of which I would just stand there, looking at her and thinking to myself,  “I don’t know, aint eating that sha, whatever you like, you do with it”. Both of us will stare each other down, and the stories Mummy used to tell about the expressions on my face, hahahahahahaha. She would return me back to the table, add more corned beef stew and tell me, “this is the last stew I will give you, if you like finish it again, I won’t throw away the yam”, and so i would eat the yam so slowly, and cry the entire time.

The makings of coconutty yam

I hated yam, still not a fan, even though I enjoy pounded yam, which is a really weird thing to say. The only way i can tolerate yam is if you add a little sugar to it. My hate affair with yam ended when our nanny Aunty Iyabo added sugar to yam one day while my mum was away. I finished the plate, one time, no stories. Aunty Iyabo had also faced her own share of frustrations with feeding me, so you can imagine her delight, when she found something Ola didn’t complain about, and so she continued, quietly sneaking in sugar into my yam until mummy came home one day and saw me eating yam and eggs like it was ice cream. She couldn’t believe it. So she tasted it and confronted Aunty Iyabo, who grudgingly admitted that she added sugar. You would have expected my mother to be upset. She was more than pleased. If sugar was all it took, okay then, add sugar, so we can have peace. Not to be outdone, I am sure she must have been kicking herself for not thinking about it earlier. hahahahahahaha. She started boiling the yams with a little butter, in addition to the sugar. She does that for rice too, sans the sugar though. Oh my word, you would want to eat yam EVERYDAY. The combination of the butter, sugar, salt and then the flavour of yam, wowzer!!!!! I have just given out a family cooking secret. Hahahahahaha. When I made Ukom Isip (coconut and plantain seafood pottage – recipe HERE), it occurred to me that I can further refine Mummy and Aunty Iyabo’s method, by boiling the yam with coconut milk instead of water. Stop the presses!!!!!! WHAT!!!!! Superb. I dare any fussy eater to turn that down, even adult yam haters, won’t reject it. It tastes so nice, smells great too.

Late Sunday Breakfast at Casa de Dunni. Yam and Corned Beef Stew. Application for weekend house guest now open. Pick up your forms today ???. How I was still able to whip that up after 4 hours of sleep, I don't know. They don't tell you that girls night/sleepovers don't work when y'all are adults. It is only fun for children and teenagers. ???? exhausted.com. Even Tom wants some for breakfast. I should have put plenty pepper to deter him ???

A video posted by Dooney's Kitchen.com (@dooneyskitchen) on Jun 14, 2015 at 5:20am PDT

Now combine it with this corned beef stew, and that’s a match made in heaven right there. Let’s Cook