Moimoi or Moin-Moin is steemed bean pudding made from a mixture of washed, peeled and ground black eyed peas or beans and several other easy to reach condiments which we are soon going to look into. It is a protein-rich food that is a staple breakfast in Nigeria and can also be served together with other meals like rice, (all cooked rice variety) garri (cassava flakes ) eko (cold pap) etc.
Cooking moi moi is either by steaming or baking it in the oven, wrapped in banana leafs, tin foil, curved plates or moi moi leaves – ewe eran(Thaumatococcus daniellii). Moi moi can also be cooked or baked in foil wrapper, tin containers or plates.
Moi moi cooking is very easy and the steps are simple to follow.
Here are the basic ingredients for preparing moi moi.
NB: Though I blog about the best way to prepare any food, I often like to say basic seeing that some people may be alergic to some food items or ingredients while some may be restricted by a health factor, there is always the option of omitting the item
So, here are grandma’s old fashioned recipe for preparing Nigerian moi moi and the quantity is for four servings.
- half kg of beans or black eyed peas.
- An average sized bulb of Onions
- Three or four bell peppers, I specially like them adding healthy color to food
- Chili peppers, mind your tolerance to peppers.
- A hand full of crefish. You will like it’s taste in moimoi.
- One smoked, fresh or iced fish. I like it scattered in my moimoi.
- Half teaspoon of ground African nutmeg, Ehuru.
- one teaspoon of dried ground ginger.
- one teaspoon of dried ground tumeric.
- five table spoons of vegetable oil
- a few leafs of scent basil. (Efirin, nshanwu, or Ocimum gratissimum)
- Thaumatococcus daniellii Botanical name for Moi Moi leaf/wrappers.
- Seasonings and salt to taste.
- And some water.
Now that we have all the basic ingredients for preparing our moi moi, let’s go to the kitchen and begin the preparation process.
Grandma method of preparing moi moi (beans pudding )
- Moin-Moin is prepared by first soaking the beans in cold water until they are soft enough to remove the fine outer covering or peel.
- Then the beans are ground or blended (using a blender) without the peel, until a fine paste is achieved.
- turn this paste out into a mixing bowl.
- Blend the bell peppers and the chili pepers and add to the beans paste. You can add thsee pepers to the beans before grounding, it helps make the mixing easier. You can also prefer your peppers chopped.
- Blend or pound (in a morter) the crefish and add to the mix. I like pounding mine. Taste better that way. Optionally and additionally, you can also use any other crustaceans like prawns.
- now add your dried ground ginger and African nutmeg along with the tumeric and chopped onions. Grind the onions if thats your preference.
- include the Seasonings and salt to the mix.
- add your vegetable oil or any other edible oil like olive oil, ground nut oil, Melon seed oil, even palm oil will do.
- wash thoroughly the scent basil and finely chop then add to the mix in the bowl and whisk properly until you get an even mix.
- add the water a little at a time, while you mix the paste and condiments, till you get a dropping consistency.
- here’s my fun part, adding the fish. (This is because am addicted to fish head and since you don’t need this in the moi moi, ……fill in the blank space. ) optionally and additionally, you can also use sliced or whole hard boiled eggs, (I mix them raw into the beans .
- Now the wrapping part. You need to thoroughly wash the wrapping leaves and drain the water off the leaves before you use it to wrap your moi moi. If you don’t have access to the leaf for wrapping moi moi you can alternatively use tins or plates. So here we scop the mixed and ready to cook moi moi paste into our wrapping leaf, foil, tins or plates in little portions. Place these into a deep source pan, add water to about one tenth of the pan depth and place the pan on the fire. Leave to boil for about twenty to thirty minutes.
NB: if after the whole ingredients are mixed into the paste your paste still appears to be too thick for your liking, add a little more water. Just make sure you achieve a dropping consistency for best result.
To know if the moi moi is well cooked, because you don’t want it half done, insert a tooth pick into one of the moimoi and if it comes away with paste sticking of it then you need to cook for a way while longer but if the tooth pick comes away clean, my dear, our moi moi is done!
Moin-Moin is eaten alone or with bread as a snack, with rice as a complete meal or with pap for breakfast or supper. it can also be taken with cassava flakes (garry) in the afternoon.
For our friends who do not understand some of the names oF the ingredients, the English as well as botanical names have also been used to aid your easy sourcing. And if you are one of those who appreciate their meal better when they know the health nutrition benefits of what they eat, this blog also deals with that. Oh yes, our health is our wealth and we are very much into it.
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