Ewa Agoyin is one of those street food that not lots of people learned to prepare at home, there was usually no incentive to know how to make it because the food hawkers always had it and came around daily and in a timely fashion.
We have spun the globe this week and found ourselves in the wonderful city of Cotonou . This French city lies along the coast of the Atlantic ocean and is known for its famous Dantokpa market and large number of motorcycle riders.
There is much to cover on this beautiful city but it is recipe Wednesday so let’s hit the order of the day.
Our dish of the day is Ewa Agoyin. Ewa is the Yoruba name for Beans and Agoyin is the name of the area and people where the dish originated from. You may also find this dish among many Lagosians in Nigeria which is just next door.
Interested? Let’s get our ingredients on the cooking table.
Cooking Time: 30 minutes
Ingredients:
2 cups of Honey or Black eyed beans
Crushed chili seeds
Dried chilled pepper
Dried red bell pepper
Quarter cup of crayfish
1 Large onion
1 Cup of Palm oil
Seasoning
1 tsp Salt
Cooking Method: To make the mashed beans, add half a litre of water and salt to the two cups of Beans and boil on medium heat.
Allow to boil until beans is soft and taking it off heat, mash the beans with a spatula.
To make the Ewa Agoyin sauce, soak the crushed chili seeds, dried chili pepper and the dried red bell pepper in water (if possible you can soak it the previous day before making the dish).
Slice three quarters of the onion and add to the chili mix.
Grind mix until semi smooth, adding water to ensure that you get the correct texture.
Put the mix to boil until dry.
While the chili mix is drying up, in a separate pot, warm up the palm oil. Do not try to bleach it so it doesn’t change the taste of the sauce.
With the palm oil still on low heat, add the chili mix and let it fry.
Dice and fry the leftover onion before adding it to the mix. Add salt and seasoning to taste and stir in the crayfish. Stir consistently for 7 – 15 minutes until sauce turns light brown.
Served the mashed beans with the palm oil sauce on the top. To add to this dish, you can add fried plantains.
