MoiMoi with Unpeeled Beans
Moinmoin
Truth be told, the first time I tried moimoi with unpeeled beans I was still in primary school, my aunty had visited us and made some. I will say it was extremely obvious the beans wasn’t peeled as the texture of the moimoi was very coarse, however the resulting moimoi was extremely more filling than usual
Fast forward to two years ago when I made some moi moi using quinoa , I toyed with the idea of perfecting my aunty’s recipe but I did not. In 2014, I finally did try it but I wasn’t very thrilled with the end result. I made a critical mistake, I used black eyed beans which left dark spots in the moi moi. Although extremely delicious and very filling, I knew I could do better.
2014 attempt using Black eyed beans
This attempt was perfect. I took lessons from my aunty’s creation and leveraged my mistake from last year. I promise you, no one will know you did not peel the skin off the beans. You will also find this moimoi to be extremely filling, this is because we didn’t get rid of the fiber by taking off the skin.
Ingredients:
- Brown beans (oloyin or drum) – 2 cups
- Medium onion – 1/2 
 (chopped)
- Red bell pepper (Tatashe) – 2 (chopped)
- Scotch bonnet pepper (ata Rodo) – 1
- Eggs – 4 (boil, peel & slice 2)
- Ground crayfish – 1 Tablespoon
- Palm oil- 2-3 Tablespoons
- Bouillon cube (Maggi) – 1-2 cubes
- Salt (to taste)
Other : Aluminum loaf or muffin pan for steaming, aluminum foil
Directions
- Cover beans with generous amount of water and leave to soak overnight
- Combine beans, peppers, onion and 1.5 cups water in a blender, blend to a smooth
 batter. Leave batter to rest for about 5 minutes and blend again
- Pour batter into a large bowl, crack in raw eggs. Set aside
- Dissolve salt, palm oil, crayfish and maggi in 2 tablespoons of boiling water, set aside to cool. once cooled, add to batter
- With a turning pin (omo orogun) or electric mixer- Mix the batter thoroughly (this is to incorporate air into the batter and fluff the resulting moi moi). mix for about 5 -10 minutes . Taste and adjust for seasoning
- Add 4 cups water to a large pot, set on high heat and bring to a boil
- Oil the pan (cupcake pan in this case). portion moi moi batter into pan and top with slices of boiled eggs . Cover the loaf pan tightly with some aluminum foil
- Place the batter filled loaf pan in the pot of water ( it shouldn’t be covered in water), place a tight lid over the pot and reduce the heat to medium. Steam for 45-60 minutes (alternatively, steam for 45 minutes in an electric steamer)
Enjoy moi moi with a side of garri, pap, custard or bread
Recipe note:
- If you do not have time to soak beans overnight. Cover with very hot water for 20 minutes.
- When making moimoi, the batter consistency is critical to the density of the end result. Your batter should not be too thick, it should be very close to the batter pictured. If you find that your batter is thicker, add water and mix it some more.
- Make use of Red beans, Black eyed beans will leave black spots in the moi moi
- It is important that you rest the batter after the first blend, this enables the beans to absorb more water and fluff up during cooking
- I highly recommend that you soak the beans overnight
- feel free to play up the profile of the moi moi by adding in other spices. Ginger, thyme and chipotle pepper all work great in moi moi
- When steaming in a pot, the wider the better. you never want the steaming utensil covered in water. If the water starts to dry up during steaming, simply add in more water
- You can choose to wrap the moi moi in leaves (Ewe Eran) or banana leaves if you have some
Fresh Plantain Fufu
Fresh Plantain Fufu with Abak Atama
I was very excited when Fadekemi hit me up on twitter with a fresh plantain fufu recipe; it’s something that never crossed my mind prior. I set out to buy plantains and after a few trials here we are. Since this post has a health component to it, I decided to do a brief comparison between traditional cassava and Plantain.
Summary: Plantain is lower in calories and carbohydrate however it’s significantly higher in sugar than cassava. If you are counting calories or on a low carb diet, plantain fufu is a much better option however if you are sugar sensitive, stick with cassava based fufu.
Ingredients
- 1 large unripe plantain
- 2/3 cup water
Direction
- Peel and cut the plantain into small pieces
- Combine plantain and water in a blender. puree to a smooth paste
- Pour the plantain puree into a pot, set on high heat
- Stir the mixture with a spatula until the puree begin to cuddle. Reduce the heat to medium and continue to stir until you have a stretchy dough
- Serve the fufu and set aside to cool (this will harden the fufu a little more)
Enjoy with your choice of soup
Note: If you will prefer a darker color similar to Amala, simply freeze the fresh plantain before use.
Nigerian Afang Soup Recipe
Afang soup originated from southern Nigeria, like most soups from the region it’s a earthy broth of meat and fish with vegetable simmered in. Afang is a wild vegetable also called Okazi by the Igbos. Botanically afang is called Gnetum africanum from the Family Gnetaceae.
The soup is traditionally prepared with a combination of afang leaf and water leaf. If you live outside Nigeria or don’t have access to waterleaf for other reasons, great substitutes are malabar spinach (Amunututu) and watercress.
Video Recipe
Ingredient
- Cubed Beef or Goat meat (2 cups)
- Shredded dried Fish (1 cup)
- Medium size panla (okporoko)
- Blended or pounded afang leaves (1.5 cup )
- Finely chopped water leaves (2 cups)
- 1/4 cup of palm oil
- Grounded dried Pepper (1 teaspoon)
- Â Salt to taste
- Crayfish powder (3 tablespoons)
- Maggi (2 cubes)
Direction
- Combine beef with 2-3 cups of water in a large pot. Add in panla, 2 maggi cube, salt . Simmer on medium heat until meat is very tender.
- Add more water to cover the cooked beef. Add in shredded fish, crayfish powder, ground pepper, and palm oil. Stir. Cover the pot and allow to simmer for 10 minutes. Stir the broth. Taste and ajust for seasoning.
- Add the vegetables. Do not stir. Simmer uncovered for 3 minutes and remove from heat immediately.
Serve with your choice of Fufu, Garri or Semolina. Enjoy!
Afang Soup – Nigerian Soup
How to Make Ayamase (Ofada Stew/Sauce)
Nigerian Ayamase sauce AKA Ofada Sauce/Stew
 Nigerian Ayamase / Ofada Stew Recipe
Funny enough, the Ofada sauce got it name from the local rice it is usually served with (Ofada rice), the sauce itself is called Ayamase . The pairing is however so perfect that when people talk about ofada rice they automatically associate it with the ayamase stew. First time I tried Ofada sauce was in 2003 at that time it was the best thing I had tasted.
After several trials and tribulations and speaking to loads of people in Nigerian local food industry, here is a complete recipe of how Ayamase is prepared. As with many Nigerian dishes, recipes often vary but the common premise is the same. Ayamase is made with green peppers, hot, contains several cow parts, palm oil is bleached and the star of the dish is Iru (LOCUST BEANS).
You can choose to serve the sauce with regular rice but the local Ofada rice definitely adds something to the dish.
Ingredients
- 5 large green bell peppers (Green Tatashe)
- 1 large red onion (Albasa) (Divided)- Thinly chop half
- 3 Scotch Bonnet peppers (Ata Rodo )
- 1 cup each – boiled Goat meat, shaki and Ponmon (chopped into small pieces)
- 4 boiled eggs – optional
- 6 Tablespoons locust beans (Iru) (Divided)
- 1 1/2 cups palm oil*
- 3 cubes maggi
- Salt to taste
Direction
- In a blender, combine the peppers, half locust beans and half onion. Blend until almost smooth
- Pour the blended pepper mix into a strainer (ase)Â and let excess water drain out
Some choose to parboil the pepper mixture to remove excess water, this is an unnecessary step as you can achieve the same goal by simply straining.
- Set another large pot with a tight fitting lead on medium heat, add in the palm oil. Bleach the oil for 5-10 minutes. Just until the oil changes to a lighter color
It will definitely get smoky, leave the pot covered throughout the bleaching process. If you have a backyard or balcony, gently take the pot out when the oil is bleached. Open the pot and leave outside until all the smoke is gone. If you cant take the pot outside, turn off the heat, open the pot slightly and leave to rest until all the smoke is gone.
- Return the oil to high heat, add in the chopped onion and left over locust beans. fry until the onion is a bit golden
- Add in the parboiled meat and fry until lightly browned (Stir often so the meat doesn’t stick or burn)
- Add in the pepper mix, eggs, salt and maggi. Stir to combine
- Decrease the heat to low-medium, cook the sauce until oil floats to the top (45 minutes to 1 hour depending on your stove)
- Remove and discard the excess oil before serving, the point of using lots of oil is to help the sauce fry. Enjoy!
Serve sauce on Ofada or regular rice.
Coconut Fried Rice
Shrimp Coconut Fried rice with PlantainsVideo Recipe
Ingredients:
- Coconut milk – 2 cups
- water – 2 cups
- Rice – 4 cups
- Maggi – 4 cubes
- Salt- To taste
- Curry and thyme – 1 teaspoon each
- Bay Leaves – 2
- Pepper flakes – 1 tablespoon
- Thyme – another 1 teaspoon
- Â Oil – 4 Tablespoons
- Onion (chopped) – 1/2 medium
- Â Mixed vegetables – 2 cups
- Shrimps (optional) – 2 cups
Directions:
- Place a pot on medium heat, add in the coconut milk, water, salt, curry, thyme , bayleaves and 2 maggi cubes. Combine. Cover the pot until the mixture comes to a rolling boil
- Add in washed rice. Simmer on low-medium heat until rice is cooked and there is no more liquid in the rice (25 minutes) . Set aside to cool completely
- In a large skillet, heat up the oil. Add in the chopped onions, shrimps, pepper flakes, thyme , maggi and mixed vegetable. Stir fry for 2- 3 minutes . Taste and adjust for seasoning
- Stir in already cooked rice. Combine. Taste and adjust for seasoning. Stirfry for another 1-2 minutes
Serve with Fish and Plantain
Enjoy!!
I really love this
am quite surprised, are u saying that we can eat all this food and loose weight? puff puff? fried things? i want to start my weight loss program, but i dont know what kind of foods to eat, would like to see good results tho
I believe not all the recipes on this site are weight loss conducive. You can visit 9jafoodie.com/loseitnigerian for weight loss specific recipes.
Very well said
No, I am not saying you can eat “unhealthy” and lose weight. There is a section on this blog called health and diet where you will find strictly healthy recipes. you can also check out my cookbook Lose It Nigerian
Hi my name is Ngozi really love to know more on how to prepare a diet food table, please i really need ur help. thanks.
hi my name is toyosi i really love your blog nd am desprately inneed of a diet food table can u pls help me out
hello my name is laura, i wanted to say that i really love your blog ;it’s awesome.I wanted o know if you made the vids u posted. If so could i possibly post it on my blog? and of course mention that i got it from you. i j started up a blog.It’s meant 2 be African centered, and i would rlly love 2 have a lot of info on it. thank you very for ready. have a beautiful day.
Sincierly yours laura
I love the ogbono and the asaro(yam porridge) it’s been so long I tasted yam. Am craving for this meal seriouslyn
loving all Nigerians involved in cooking…together let’s showcase naija foods to the world!