I guess this week on the blog should be termed #Dorobeans. Lol. I know they say I give away too much, but this is something that really wouldn’t be fair for me to keep to myself till my cookbook gets published. This was an earnest request from a reader. She has asked many times, and I know somewhere in the world, there is some frustrated woman wondering why Dunni hasn’t answered. You know who you are, I am sure somewhere in the world of thought forms, your wish latched on to me, I won’t be surprised if it was around the time you were probably attempting moin moin again and failing, because for once, I felt the strong need to measure as I was blending beans for Moin Moin. Out of nowhere, I suddenly thought, get out your measuring cups, quickly before you forget. Remember so so so person has asked you many times.
I take such matters seriously, and yes I want to make a serious big time living out of what I do, but this one was a repeated direct request. I go to The Lord everyday in prayers with my list of wishes, surely this one that someone has asked me many times, it is not too much to answer. There is no blessing in keeping this one to myself, surely there are other ways to be enriched with what I do, and this tip will be very useful to readers of the blog, just as the other tips like:
Peeling beans in a blender (click HERE)
Pounding yam in a food processor – you can do the same for cocoyam to thicken soups (click HERE)
Lining a heat proof container with moin moin leaves (click HERE) instead of the somewhat stressful traditional wrapping
Peeling beans in a food processor (click HERE)
Making ewa aganyin in a food processor (click HERE)
This is something that will benefit a shitload (pardon my French) of cooks, Nigerian and otherwise, plus it is high time we had a formulae for blending beans. Really, Nigerian cooking has now evolved into measuring. Word of mouth, eye gauging, doesn’t work for a 2014 cook who doesn’t have the time nor patience of trial and error, till experience sets in. Sign of progress. Loool.
Here goes:
Moin Moin - To every 1 cup of peeled beans blend with 3/4 cup of water. This cup is the standard measuring cup of 250ml. The other cup blurred in the background is half cup, so fill that half cup with water, and then fill a 1/4 cup with water, making it 3/4 cup. Likewise, if you have a measuring jug, just do the conversion. My recipe for Moin Moin click HERE. Likewise, you could try my Moin Moin Elemi Plenty recipe HERE. Also bear in mind that the extra ingredients you will also blend with the beans will contribute their own liquid content i.e. tatashe (red bell pepper), onions and ata rodo (scotch bonnet/habanero pepper), you will also add oil (either palm oil or vegetable oil). I put all that into consideration for this formula. You should not need to dilute any further after blending
For Ekuru, blend 1 cup of beans with 1 cup of water. The mixture for Ekuru is slightly more fluid than Moin Moin. Recipe for Ekuru, click HERE
Akara - To every cup of peeled beans, blend 1/2 cup of water for Akara. The mixture for akara is supposed to be thicker than moin moin, otherwise you would end up with flat akara. My recipe for Akara, click HERE. If you would like to make healthy Akara, which doesn’t involve deep-frying, but frying flat like a pancake, click HERE.
Of course, you don’t have to blend 1 cup each time, that would take forever. If you have 5 cups of beans for example, just multiply the volume of water needed for 1 cup by 5. I tried the 1 cup formular 3 times, to make sure it worked for 1. Then I started blending 4 cups of beans at one go and multiplying the volume of water by 4 and it still worked. Science experiment over, this formulae works.
Dilution - If you need to dilute, ONLY IF necessary, dilute with half the amount used to blend 1 cup of beans i.e 1/2 for akara and 2/3rds for moin moin. I would advice that you only dilute after you are done blending ALL your peeled beans.
Now go ye forth this weekend and make awesome Moin Moin, Akara or Ekuru. My Good deed of the week, done. Lol
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