Duval Timothy

This recipe warms the heart of my big sister, Omolola. She insists that she can’t make it like I can, but I reckon she just likes being pampered once in a while. Don’t we all. Yam can be a little dry on its own but this mash is silky smooth, with the coconut giving it a richness.

You’ll need some lollipop sticks for this recipe. We found some interesting yellow serving sticks that worked well at dinner, but if worse comes to worst you can use cocktail sticks.

This is the dish that first got me into cooking. Talking about it got me my first job in a kitchen, and together with the help of friends, local restaurants, and family it’s the recipe we have worked on the most for this book, because we all know how good it should be. If I could only eat one thing in the world it would probably be my grandma’s jollof. She would regularly cook a big pot with care and patience and insist that everyone took home a small container of it. Cooking the rice and storing it for the following day or to give to friends to take away is part of a sharing culture that surrounds jollof—just remember to return the Tupperware!