The Ijebu signature dish — grated water yam (ewura) dropped in lumps into a peppery palm-oil broth with fish, crayfish, and iru, cooking into a thick, lumpy, savory pottage. Sometimes called ifokore.
Ikokore is fiercely Ijebu — a point of regional pride and identity within Yorubaland, the dish that says where you're from. It shows the yam culture of West Africa at its most inventive, turning a single tuber into a textured, complete meal.
Water yam carries resistant starch and a mucilaginous quality that feeds gut bacteria and slows glucose absorption better than mashed white starches. Its potassium counters dietary sodium. Made with smoked fish and iru rather than heavy meat, ikokore is a gut-friendly, lower-fat way to eat yam.
Peel and grate water yam to a sticky paste; set up a seasoned palm-oil pepper broth with crayfish, iru, and fish, then drop spoonfuls of the yam paste in so they set into soft lumps. Simmer gently — stirring too hard dissolves the lumps. It thickens as it cooks.
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