Describing my aunt’s reaction to Ewa Agoyin beans. I was with my aunt some days ago and we were talking about Nigerian delicacies, she knows a lot of them as most of the names she mentioned I haven’t heard before, I could only mention a few Nigerian dishes. As we continued listing and mentioning foods, she exclaimed have you eaten Ewa agoyin beans? Do you even know it?
The excitement on her face as she expressed herself and even tried to describe the food left me with the thoughts of how delicious the meal is. She mentioned the ingredients and even told me the equipment used for making it, she said I should try it and made me realize I was actually missing a lot if I haven’t eaten this food.
I promised her I was going to read about it and talk about it so people like myself can have a taste of this delicious Nigerian meal. And this is me talking about the great Ewa agoyin beans. You only have to follow the steps if you want to make this meal.
This is the perfect way for those who do not like beans to enjoy them. Yea, a lot of people do not enjoy eating beans but you can actually try these beans because it is prepared differently from the usual. I cannot eat beans without plantain but with what my aunt describes these beans I can never get enough of this delicious Ewa Agoyin.
What exactly makes this bean so delicious? Why was my aunt so excited about it? You may want to explore this with me, lets follow these simple steps and make our own Ewa agoyin beans.
Ingredients for cooking Ewa Agoyin beans
- 2 cigar cups (approx. 500g) brown/black-eyed beans
- 5 cooking spoons red palm oil
- 5 big plum tomatoes
- 1 handful crayfish
- 1 big onion
- Pepper & Salt (to taste)
- 2 stock cubes
Before preparing Ewa Agoyin
- Soak the beans in cold water for 5 hours. Boil the beans for 5 minutes and discard the water. Rinse the beans in cold water and set them aside. This soaking and the pre-cooking process will help reduce the gas-inducing elements. For more on that visit: How to Reduce Beans Bloating.
- Chop the onions, grind the crayfish and pound the pepper.
- Blend the tomatoes and boil the tomato puree till all the water has dried from it.
- Pre-cook the diced onions without any added water. The aim is to get it to caramelize a bit so that it will take less time to fully caramelize during frying.
How to prepare Ewa Agoyin beans
- Cook the beans till done. For Ewa Agoyin, the beans needs to be very soft.
- When the beans are done, add salt, leave to dry up all the water, and set aside.
- To cook the Agoyin, pour the palm oil into a separate dry pot. Allow to heat up till the oil starts smoking and the red color changes to clear. It is better to do this at medium heat so that the oil does not get too hot too quickly. Remember to turn off your smoke alarm before doing this.
To keep the smoke to a minimum and still have the traditional taste of Ewa Agoyin, I use vegetable oil and when it is very hot, I add a small amount of palm oil. Watch the video below to see how I do that. - Now add the precooked onions and stir continuously till the onions are fully caramelized. It should be very dark in color.
- Add the parboiled tomato puree and stir continuously till you cannot tell the difference between the tomatoes and onions.
- Add the pepper, crayfish, stock cubes, and salt to taste. You can also add a little water at this point if your want.
- Stir very well and bring to a boil. The Ewa Agoyin is ready!
