In Nigeria, there are two types of cocoyam namely; the red cocoyam and the white cocoyam.

As the name implies, there is a redness to the red cocoyam when cut and cooked while the white cocoyam maintains a off-white colour even after it has been cooked. You may also like this recipe on How To Cook Cocoyam Porridge with Red Cocoyam . Cocoyam is a versatile ingredient in Nigerian cuisine. It is used to used to make crunchy chips, porridge and also used as a thickener while cooking soup. For ebiripo recipe, the white cocoyam is the best.

What is ebiripo in English

Sincerely, it is quite hard to give certain traditional foods English names. This is simply because this traditional dishes are not of English origin.

Moi moi leaves were the traditional cooking utensils used to steam foods such as Moi Moi , Ekuru, Ebiripo and many more. Before the popularity of other food steaming utensils such as ramekin, pudding bowl, food pouches, moi moi pouch and many more These other food steaming utensils became widely accepted because there are convenient i.e. easy to use and also because they help save money because they are re-useable. Despite the above stated, moi moi leaves have continued to be in high demand because they are cheap, more environment- friendly as well as the unique taste and flavour they adds to food. Now let's go into to how to prepare ebiripo ijebu.

How to prepare ebiripo

• Wash your hands properly
• Put moi moi leaves in big bowl of water
• Carefully clean eat leaf to remove the impurities till all the leaves have been cleaned
• As many times as possible, clean the leaves again in another fresh bowl of water till the water is clear
• Dispose the water used for cleaning the leaves
• Remove the hard stick at the lower middle part of the leaves - when cooking with moi moi leaves, this important step that should never be missed because it will determine the ease of cooking you will experience with the leaves.
• Set the leaves aside
• Peel the cocoyam
• Put the peeled cocoyam in water immediately it is peeled to avoid discolouration.
• Wash your hands again after peeling the cocoyam to remove the dirt that may be attached to your hands while you were peeling the cocoyams.
• Grate the peeled cocoyam using the smallest side of the grater
• After grating, add salt and water
• Mix very well with your fingers while feeling for lumps of cocoyam that may be in the cocoyam batter
• Remove any cocoyam lump found as it will spoil the texture and outcome of the ebiripo
• Wrap the fold the moi moi leaves and pour some cocoyam batter into it
• Neatly wrap the leaves and place in a separate bowl
• Do this till all the cocoyam batter have been properly wrapped
• Place your steaming pot and steaming wrap on your cooker
• Add water into the pot
• Arrange the ebiripo on the steaming rack
• Cook for 20 minutes

Ebiripo is ready to be enjoyed with egusi although in this case I ate my ebiripo with beef and ponmo pepper sauce.

Ebiripo dish cooking tips

Please note that, instead of using a grater which is the traditional way to grinding the cocoyam for ebiripo, you can use a blender, grinder or food processor for the ease of cooking.