Ewa agoyin is a yummy staple dish in Western Nigeria, particularly Lagos.
The name ewa agoyin is translated as beans of the Agoyin people. This summarizes its origin. The meal was introduced in Nigeria by Togolese immigrants who sold this meal in Lagos.
Ewa agoyin is a delicious mashed beans meal served with a moderately spicy palm oil sauce.
The recipe is very simple and comprises of affordable ingredients. Brown beans, palm oil, onions, dried cayenne pepper (Shombo), crayfish, salt and seasoning cubes are the ingredients required.
The beans take the longest to be ready, so it is advisable that the beans be put on fire first. It is good to state that, the sauce gets tastier as it rests and cools after preparing.
The mashed beans
This recipe is for five hundred grams of beans (500 g). The best bean types for this meal is honey or brown beans.
Pick and separate beans from any dirt that might be included in the packaging, into a clean container.
Thoroughly, rinse the seperated beans with lukewarm water twice or thrice. This gets rid of any sand particles. This does not mean that you should peel the beans skin.
Add the washed beans to a clean pot. Slice two whole onions and add water enough to soften beans. At this stage do not add salt. Cover pot and place on a lighted cooker. Keep adding water to the cooking beans till is softens completely. A pressure cooker works very well in cooking beans, as it shortens the cooking time.
When the beans get very soft, add salt for taste and mash beans like you would mash cooked potatoes. If the mashed beans look dry, add some water for a balanced feel. The consistency should be mashed not watery.
Asides boiling the beans with onions, salt is the only seasoning you need for the mashed beans. Adding any other seasoning, will alter the taste required by the authentic recipe, when the correct sauce is added.
The Ewa Agoyin original sauce
The combination of the mashed beans and this sauce is a delicious delight to taste buds and hungry tummies.
The sauce is made with dried cayenne pepper, onions, palm oil, salt, seasoning cubes or powder, blended crayfish in powdery form.
You might need to wear gloves for this. Break off the stalk of the cayenne pepper, if any. Rinse the pepper thoroughly about three times with lukewarm water.
Blend the cayenne pepper with a generous amount of onions smoothly with a little amount of water, enough to run the blades of the blender easily. Blend pepper and onions very smoothly.
The ratio of onion to pepper should be two handfuls of pepper, blended with a whole onion.
Dice a whole onion in singular rings. Further break rings in half. You want to have strings of onions in a slim elongated pattern. Set aside. The amount of onions used, applies to the amount of blended pepper mix used in this recipe. More pepper quantity will require more onion rings. For two litres of cayenne/onion blend, a whole onion is diced in rings.
Place a dry pan on fire to heat. To the heated pan, add a generous amount of palm oil. The ratio of palm oil is one handful of cayenne pepper will need to be cooked in five hundred millilitres (500 ml) of palm oil.
Once the oil in the pan is heated (not bleached), add the sliced onion strings. Fry till browned. Remove from oil and set aside.
Add the blended cayenne pepper mix, add salt, add seasoning cube and a table spoon of the powdered crayfish. Stir and allow to fry. This sauce needs your undivided attention and continous stirring.
Sauce is ready when the fried pepper mix turns darker and gritty in texture. Not burnt but gritty. The gritty texture is because the pepper blended was dried.
Once you observe that the sauce has become gritty, add the fried onions.
Switch off the heat from the stove and allow sauce to further cook with the heat retained on the stove as it cools.
Keep stirring to avoid burning. The sauce needs to be stirred till the stove finally cools and does not sizzle the sauce any longer.
I advice that this sauce be made once the beans is on fire. The beans takes long to cook, so this accommodates the cooking and resting time for the sauce.
Serve the mashed beans and sauce with either some fried plantains, yam, potatoes, bread or simply enjoy without any extras.
No comments:
Post a Comment