EWA AGOYIN...

This is unbelievable even to me, this is my 3rd beans post. Maybe i'm not so much of a hater after all, also i discovered a way to cook beans to reduce the bloating and discomfort... Yeah, i think this is why i'm eating a lot more beans and it's simple really...soak it before you cook it for about 5 hours, overnight even. You guys knew this??? Well i didn't and wish someone had told me earlier, a couple hours (minutes really) of researching and i discover that when soaked, breakdown of of the membrane of certain sugars occur and when you rinse, these sugars get washed away. Skip this step and these sugars that don't readily get digested in the stomach, travel to you intestines where bacteria breaks them down causing intestinal gas. All i had to do to enjoy beans was soak it... ah well...

I had my first ewa agoyin experience when i still lived in Lagos, i had gone to visit a friend in Surulere when suddenly she hears some kind of chant and springs up and calls for her security man to call the women passing by. Now Franca is kinda posh so when i followed her outside with 2 plates, the scene that met my eyes dazzles me quite a bit. We were going to buy food from a street vendor, and not just regular food, BEANS!!! Long story short, we buy and go back inside and i spend quite a while staring at my plate then she says to try it with bread so i "don't see what it is that i'm eating" and i did, and did some more, then ate the rest without the bread...

Sigh!

I no longer live in Lagos, i had it just that one time but i never forgot it. so i googled it and found a couple recipes and tried to play back what it tasted like and came up with this...

2 Cups of Brown Beans (Cleaned, rinsed and soaked in water for 5 hours minimum)

3 Tomatoes

4 Red Bell Peppers (Tatashe)

2 Small Onions

1 Teaspoon Grated Ginger

250Grm Offals

1/4 Cup Ground Crayfish

1 Cup Palm Oil

1 Seasoning Cube

Salt & Pepper

Cover your beans with enough water and pressure cook for 90 minutes, or regular cook for 2 hours, topping up water when needed.

While your beans cooks, roughly blend tomato, bell pepper and one onion. Transfer into a pot, add meat, ginger, salt, pepper and 1 seasoning cube and set on low heat and allow to cook until all the water has dried up. The ewa agoyin i ate had no meat in eat but i have to have some meat and because i don't wanna lose any flavour by cooking the meat separately and not being able to use the stock, i chose to cook it in the tomatoes and let everyone party together and flavour one another.

When you have soft cooked beans with some water still in the pot, turn the heat down low and take a hand held blender (if you have one) or a pestle and go to town mashing/pureeing the beans but not till its totally smooth.

Leave it on the low heat to tighten up, stirring occasionally so that it doesn't burn and stick to the pot. As soon as it has a porridge consistency, turn it off. It will tighten further as it cools so you don't want it very thick before you take it off the heat.

Chop 2nd onion.

Fish meat (lol) out of tomato/pepper paste.

Pour palm oil into dry pot and allow to bleach for about 7 minutes. Add chopped onions and allow to cook down and caramelize and brown, not burn and blacken.

Add meat and fry for 2 - 3 minutes.

Pour in crayfish and lastly tomatoes.

Fry until the tomatoes appear dry and form separate pieces in the pot. Taste for seasoning.

Spoon over a bowl of mashed cooked beans.

Enjoy!