Hello Foodaholics, the new GT Food talk column is handled by the well-known food blogger, Gina Ehikodi popularly known as Geena of foodiesandspice.
Last Friday I had a strong yearning for Beans and since Boo once hinted that he likes Beans too I decided to make my favorite Beans recipe, The Super Yummy Agoyin Beans for Saturday Breakfast.
With my Bestest Foodaholics in mind I decided to share the recipe with step by step pictures.
YUMMY AGOYIN BEANS
INGREDIENTS
· Beans
· Onions
· Palm oil
· Red Chilli pepper (shombo)
· Yellow Pepper or Red scotch Bonnet
· Salt to taste
· Sugar (my secret Beans ingredient)
· Smoked Fish
PREPARATIONS
For all ya who find picking the chaff and stones from beans boring and difficult, I will need to do a “how to” video to help you out. It’s quite easy, in a couple of minutes you are done, if you toss the beans in a tray a couple of times, it shifts the chaff forward, you blow, move the beans and you sort beans towards you and remove stones as you sort (remind me to do video).
Beans picked, put in a bowl and add boiled water to it (this will help clean it) pour out the water after 3-5mins then rinse again with cold water. In a pot add water and chop half bulb of onions into it, allow to simmer, then pour into the pot, cover and cook till tender.
Blend Peppers, Garlic and half Bulb of Onions coarsely, then set aside (do not add so much water when blending, if you do, be sure to cook it in a separate pot till its dry of water).
Add 3-4 cooking spoons of Palm oil (or as required) into a pot and heat up till it becomes really light and transparent. In Nigerian parlance, this is called bleaching (you have to be very careful when doing this so I do this on low heat watch it closely cos it smokes a lot)
do not do this with smoke detectors on cos you will definitely trigger the alarm. PLEASE BE CAREFUL!
As soon as it is bleached, I usually turn off the cooker wait a minute before throwing in thinly chopped onions (2 bulbs at least or as required) then turn the cooker on again. Anyway, I don’t know if this is where I report my predicament or wait till later… I will tell you now! Boo is not into Onions and I am a diehard Onions Lover, so for the sake of Kitchen Peace to reign, Yours sincerely has been devising various means to balance this issue. So for this recipe I used just one bulb but if u love Onions, I will advise you use as much as you want.
Caramelizing! Yes this is the part you start frying the onions till its brown, Do not let it Burn or you will get a bitter taste. Stir as you fry to avoid burning, this can take close to 20 minutes on medium low heat.
When it is caramelized, pour in the Pepper mix and allow to fry too. Stir until it is completely dry of water.
Clean the smoked fish for garnishing and add to the Agoyin sauce, add salt and seasoning to taste, stir till it is completely cooked.
As soon as beans is tender, I enhance the taste of my Beans with a sprinkle of half Teaspoon of sugar (it brings out the sweetness in the Beans), then add your salt to taste. Mash Beans with spoon or a masher till it’s completely mashed.
Serve and enjoy with Boiled Yam, Bread, Plantain whatever you choose cos this is just extremely yummy.
Yes! Boo abi? Ermmmm….., he finished it, plate was completely clean.
