PREPARING POUNDED YAM................

                                                 Pounded Yam 
It is sometimes called  eman (eman being the Edo word for pounded yam).
It is a very popular African food, especially in benin the middle belt, eastern and southern Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Cost (Côte d'Ivoire), and some other parts of West Africa.

Pounded yam is classified as a special delicacy. It is a highly prestigious meal all over Africa.
Pounded yam is thus an authentic African food! Presenting a dish of pounded yam and egusi soup to visitors in Edo land in Nigeria for example, is considered a great act of hospitality.
Traditionally, pounded yam is made by boiling yams in a pot, and once cooked, it is placed in a mortar and pounded or beaten into a smooth textured dough with a three – five foot tall pestle.
Thanks to modern technology: there are now a couple of ways now to ease the preparation of pounded yam. One way is by slicing yam into small sizes, have them pealed and place in a yam pounder.
This automated electrical device gets the yam cooked. Once cooked, it switches into a blending mode and crushes the yam, then mashes it into a smooth semisolid paste or dough.
The other way is even easier and popular especially outside Africa. This involves yam been processed into a dried powder (dehydrated yam flour) either by sun drying yam or commercially using desiccating machines              .   Local way of preparing pounded yam.

Nutritional Value of Pounded Yam 

A meal of pounded yam with vegetable soup provides a very rich and balanced diet.
Yam in it self has been hailed as one of the most nutritious food known to man. Apart from been rich in fibre, protecting the bowel against diseases like diverticulitis, it is a great source of vitamin C, vitamin B6, magnesium, and phosphorus. Yam also is rich in protein.