Ukodo

Ukodo is a yam and unripe plantain dish of the Urhobo people of Nigeria. [1] The Itsekiri people of the Niger Delta also make a similar dish called Epuru. It is essentially a pottage, a stew of meat and vegetable with its base as the Nigerian pepper soup.

It is sometimes cooked with lemon grass and potash.[2]

It is usually used for marriage and bural ceremonies or as breakfast, particularly during the cold season. [3]

The poem below, by the Nigerian Chovwe Inisiagho-Ogbe, describes both the ingredients and the process of cooking Ukodo in a light-hearted way.[2]

Steam fills the air

It´s cooking again
This time it´s ukodo
It begins like this
Yam cut into wedges
All put in the pot
Special spices added
Their effect flavourful
Crayfish and salt
Pepper and potash
Lemon grass to blend
For aroma and taste
How delicious with goat meat
That´s what our fathers like
You can´t beat our mothers
They know too well
How to whet our appetite
An age long cuisine
A must at occasions
It heals and warms
Sweat inducing maybe
That´s urhobo hotpot
A meal so savoured

By natives and neighbours

— Chovwe Ogbe, Ukodo


References

  1. ↑ Nigerian Urhobo Ukodo (pepper soup Yam pottage) 18 May 2013 Sapele Honey
  2. 1 2 Peter Palmer Ekeh (January 2005). Studies in Urhobo Culture. Urhobo Historical Society. pp. 496–. ISBN 978-978-067-769-5.
  3. ↑ T. K. Lim (2 February 2016). Edible Medicinal and Non-Medicinal Plants: Volume 10, Modified Stems, Roots, Bulbs. Springer. pp. 293–. ISBN 978-94-017-7276-1.


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