How to cook Nigerian Ewa Agoyin

Ewa Agoyin simply means plain boiled beans eaten with a pepper sauce.

This is the perfect way for those who do not like beans to enjoy it. I can tell you that yours truly does not like beans yet, I can never get enough of Ewa Agoyin. I don't know what it is about it that makes it taste so good. Maybe it is the caramelized onions. All I know is that I enjoy eating it.

Ingredients

• Beans (Brown/Black eyed): 2 cigar cups | approx. 500g
• Red Palm Oil: about 5 cooking spoons
• Plum Tomatoes: 5 big ones
• Crayfish (a handful)
• Onions – 1 big bulb
• Pepper & Salt to taste
• Seasoning – 2 Maggi/Knorr cubes

Before you cook Ewa Agoyin

1. 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 aside. This soaking and pre-cooking process will help reduce the gas inducing elements. 
2. Chop the onions, grind the crayfish and pound the pepper.
3. Blend the tomatoes and boil the tomato puree till all the water has dried from it.
4. 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.

Cooking Directions

1. Cook the beans till done. For Ewa Agoyin, the beans needs to be very soft.
   

   Note: If you have a pressure cooker, beans is one of the staple foods you will want to use it for. It considerably reduces the cooking time.
   

2. When the beans is done, add salt, leave to dry up all the water and set aside.
3. 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 colour 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.
4. Now add the precooked onions and stir continuously till the onions is fully caramelized. It should be very dark in colour.
5. Add the parboiled tomato puree and stir continuously till you cannot tell the difference between the tomatoes and onions.
6. Add the pepper, crayfish, stock cubes and salt to taste. You can also add a little water at this point if your want.
7. Stir very well and bring to the boil. The Ewa Agoyin is ready!

Serve by dishing the beans into a plate and scooping some Agoyin stew on it. Ewa Agoyin can be eaten on its own, with soft and stretchy bread (known as Ewa ati Bread) or with fried plantains.

Efo Riro: A Yoruba Delicacy

Efo Riro is a rich vegetable soup that is native to the Yorubas of Western Nigeria. The vegetables that can be used to cook this soup are water leaves and pumpkin leaves. If these are not readily available where you live, frozen spinach is a very good substitute.


If you cannot find the ingredients to cook Edikang Ikong soup where you live, Efo Riro is a very good substitute.
If you want the authentic Efo Riro, you should add tomatoes to yours but I don't like tomatoes in any soup that I'll use to eat eba, semolina, pounded yam and other fufu recipes. Just add enough tomatoes to make the soup deep red.

Ingredients for Efo Riro

• Assorted meat and fish. For my Efo Riro, I used:
  • Beef
  • Shaki (cow tripe)
  • Smoked fish
  • Dry fish
  • Stock fish
• Palm Oil: 20 cl
• Frozen Spinach: 1 kg
• Crayfish: a handful
• Onions: 1 medium bulb
• 3 big stock cubes (spinach needs more seasoning)
• Salt & Habanero / Scotch Bonnet peppers: to taste

Other meats you can add to Efo Riro:
The more the variety of meats and fish you can add to Efo Riro, the better so feel free to add: snails and other offals, kanda etc.

Before you cook Efo Riro

1. Soak the stockfish and dry fish for a few hours. The length of time depends on how hard the stock fish is. Mine soaks in under 1 hour. When soft, clean the fish, remove the bones and separate them into small pieces.
2. Cut the frozen spinach and wring out the excess water when fully defrosted.
3. Prepare other ingredients: pound/blitz the pepper, cut the onions and grind the crayfish.

Cooking Directions

1. Start cooking the shaki first with as little water as possible (see video below) as it is the toughest meat in the bunch. This soup should have as little water as possible so add small amounts of water at a time and top it up as you cook.
2. When the shaki starts to curl, add the dry fish and stockfish.
3. When the shaki is almost done, add beef, stock cubes and onions and cook till all the meat and fish are well done.
4. Top up the water to about half the contents of the pot. Add the crayfish, smoked fish, pepper and palm oil.
5. Cover the pot and cook at high heat till the oil has changed from red to yellow.
6. Add the spinach or any other soft vegetable: pumpkin, water leaves etc.
7. Cover and cook still it gets a good boil, taking care not to overcook the vegetables. Add salt to taste and leave to simmer for 2 more minutes.

Serve Efo Riro with Semolina, Amala, Pounded Yam, Eba or any other fufu meal.

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