Yam balls (The recipe)

I woke up one morning and was determined to make this delicacy after a failed attempt with its potato counterpart. Like I once heard in a movie……. “Never let the fear of failure keep you from playing the game.”

Now there are a number of reasons we might fail at one or two recipes, however  identifying these reasons, rectifying them and never giving up is what truly matters. In all fairness, I didn’t use the full ingredient list for my failed potato balls and I also didn’t wait for the oil to sizzle before frying the balls, so they soaked up a truck load of oil. I ended up trashing them I sure couldn’t give the flop to my fam. 

However making potato/yam balls still weighed heavily on my mind, so I decided to try after a few days but this time with Yam. They are actually about the same process only that this time, the potatoes are substituted for yam. 

The recipe was looking up till I realized I was dealing with an almost stone textured Yam! The mallam near my house did me dirty with the yam he sold to me, they were far from soft and almost impossible to mash. Considering I didn’t own a masher at the time, I decided to use my blender/ processor instead. Anyway, all that begins well, ends well. Thankfully this was eventually a hit! Judging by how my Fam finished the yam balls in a minute. 

I intend to perfect this recipe even with potatoes. But first, Let me give you the scoop on how I made my Yam balls successfully. 

INGREDIENTS 

• half of one small yam
• 2 eggs
• 1 Tsp salt
• 1 Tsp dry paprika pepper (you could add more spices if you wish)
• Half of a medium sized onions
• 1/4 cup of milk
• 1/8 of one cheddar cheese block
• 1 Tsp sugar (optional)
• 1/2 a cup of flour
• Vegetable oil for cooking 
• Breadcrumbs (1/2 cup)
• Dry parsley flakes (optional, my bread crumbs already had parsley in it

STEPS

1. Start by cutting your yam into a bowl with clean water. Cut them into small sizes to aid easy mashing
2. Add some salt to taste and sprinkle in some sugar if you are about that life
3. While your Yam is boiling, chop your onions glaze very lightly with salt and fry in little oil, then set aside
4. Drain your yam water and proceed to mashing with your masher. (My yam was super hard and I didn’t have a masher so I used a food processor/ blender, this might give a different feel as opposed to a proper mashing but still a hit)
5. Add your milk to the Yam batter while mashing 
6. Add in the yolk from one of your eggs but keep the egg white
7. Grate in your cheddar cheese 
8. Add your pepper ( I didn’t bother adding salt as I already boiled with salt and a bit of sugar)
9. Mix your batter together and get ready to scoop
10. Scoop your batter and roll into balls
11. Get a formation of egg bowl(some people use milk instead), flour and bread crumbs 
12. Dip your balls one after the other in the following order— flour, egg and crumbs
13. When all balls are fully coated, proceed to frying the balls on medium to low heat. Ensure that your oil is sizzling enough to avoid the balls soaking up too much oil. 
14. Serve and treat your taste buds to some yumminess guys!

Find below my first time preparation video of yam balls.