Iru (food) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search

Dry iru cakes Ir is a type of fermented African locust beans (parkia biglobosa) used as a condi ment in cooking. It is similar to ogiri and douchi. It is very popular among the Yoruba people of Nigeria. It is used in cooking traditional soups like egusi so up, okro soup and ogbono soup. It can be found fresh or dried. The fresh variety is usually wrapped in moimoi l eaves, which are similar in appearance and texture to banana leaves. It has a ve ry pungent smell. The dried variety is flattened into discs or cakes for sale. Dried iru is weaker in flavor and pungency than fresh (though frying dried iru in cooking oil will restore much of the flavor). The dried variety stores very well in freezers. During fermentation, the reducing sugar content increases, and the total free am ino acid content initially decreases; in the end, however, there is a large incr ease in free amino acid content.