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This Ewa Agoyin (beans) and bread combo is indigenous to the Agoyin people of the Republic of Benin. As a result of cultural contact, it has naturalized in Nigeria and is well-loved in Lagos and the other South Western States. Ewa Agoyin is easy to prepare but the sauce requires the right kind of pepper, a generous quantity of palm oil and the right touch so that in frying the pepper, you won’t end up burning them.
Ingredients
3 Cups of Black-eyed Beans 1 Medium Sized Onion Two cups of Whole Chili Pepper 10 Pieces of Whole Dried Cayenne Shombo Pepper 3 Piece of Cameroon Pepper 3 Cups of Palm oil Salt to taste.How To Prepare
Remove dirt from the beans. Rinse and parboil the beans. Use a sieve to strain out the water. Rinse the beans again and put them back into the pot. Pour enough water into the beans and resume boiling on medium heat.Sign up to the Connect Nigeria daily newsletter
While the pot of beans is cooking, prepare the ingredients for the sauce. Soak the dried pepper in water to make them soft and easy to blend. Once the pepper is soft, blend them. Ewa Agayin sauce is typically made with roughly blended pepper. But if you’d rather have a smooth blend, then, make yours suit your taste. However, mention must be made of the fact that there are two most important things when blending pepper for this Sauce. The first is ensuring that the pepper seeds are well blended. If they are not, the sauce will be full of seeds and it won’t taste nice. The second thing to note is that the pepper blend for Agoyin sauce is usually thick. So, use a little water when blending. You can even use some of the water used in soaking to blend the peppers. After blending the pepper, peel, rinse and dice the onions. With the ingredients ready, it’s time to start making the sauce. Put a generous quantity of palm oil into a clean saucepan. Place the saucepan on a hob and bleach the oil under high heat till it turns dark. When it does, turn off the heat and let the oil cool for at least one minutes before you add the onions to it. Doing this will prevent the onions from burning quickly. Place the frying pan back on low heat. Let it fry till it begins to burn a little. Add the cayenne pepper. Add salt then add the blended pepper in bits while stirring at the same time. Keep stirring and frying even when all the blended pepper has been introduced into the frying pan. You’ll notice that the sauce will get darker and grittier as you continue to fry. You’ll start to perceive the aroma too. Continue frying until the palm oil floats to the surface. This should take about thirty minutes or less depending on the quantity of Sauce that you are making. Once this is achieved turn off the heat for the Sauce is ready. Check the beans. If it’s tender, add salt to it. Keep cooking till it’s very tender. When it is, use a wooden spoon to mash the beans against the sides of the pot. Please note that Ewa Agoyin is meant to be soft and smooth in the mouth. Thus, ensure that by the time you’re done mashing, there’ll be no whole beans left in the pot. Once this is done, your Ewa Agoyin is ready. Serve it up with the sauce and some really soft bread and you will eat and testify that life is truly beautiful. Source: Dooney’s Kitchen Featured Image Source: Organic Facts
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