As a child, I loved beans like kilode. Beans featured in our menu once a week. This greatly displeased my sisters, Anuli and Oliaku who were always reminded that they need beans to grow. While they complained and groaned over their plate of beans, I happily ate mine. We had three different methods of cooking beans then, the plain beans porridge, the beans and yam and the beans and plantain porridge. Beans and plantain was and still is my favourite. I enjoy cooking it too. A couple of months ago, a friend taught me a new method of cooking beans. I call this method, beans wey go school because of all the extra additions in it. When I tried this method at home, I got such compliments from my family that shakara enter my head. Lol. So, this is how to make this meal.
Ingredients
3 cups of brown beans
2 ripe plantains
1 medium-sized onion
1 tablespoon of ground crayfish
2 medium-sized fresh tomatoes
Fresh pepper to taste
2 carrot sticks
1 large ball of green pepper
2 cooking spoons of groundnut oil
Salt
Seasoning cubes
How to Cook
Remove dirt from the beans. Use a sieve to give the beans a good rinse then set it aside. Put water in a pot and set it on fire. When it boils, add the beans to it. Allow it to boil for about ten minutes. Use a sieve to discard the water. Rinse the beans again with cold water and put it back into the pot. Add enough water to the beans and cook on medium heat.
Rinse the plantain and slice or dice it. Wash and dice the carrots then set it aside. Cut the green pepper open, remove the seeds, wash and dice. You can blend or cut the onions. I don’t like seeing onions in my food so I prefer to blend the onions alongside pepper and tomatoes. Afterwards, I sieve out the water from the blended ingredients to avoid splashing when frying.
Monitor the beans to avoid burning, add water at intervals and cook until the beans are tender. Add the plantain to the beans and allow it to cook for eight to ten minutes. I don’t like my beans completely dry so I leave a little water in it when I turn off the heat.
The next step involves frying. Put your frying pan on fire. Add groundnut oil. When it’s hot, add your blended ingredients and crayfish. Fry a little and turn off the heat. Put the beans back on fire. Pour the fried ingredients into the pot. Add salt and seasoning cubes to taste. Lower the heat then add the green pepper and carrot. Use a cooking spoon to stir the porridge well then turn off the heat.
Food is ready. Let me assure you that this method of cooking beans is bae. Give it a try sometime; don’t forget to let me know what you think.
Featured image source: www.thekitchenmuseng.com