Ewa Agoyin

"Ewa" is the local name for black eyed beans. "Agoyin" I believe is used to describe a set of people  who hails from Togo. So I suppose this was how the name Ewa Agoyin was coined, so needless to say this recipe is originally from Togo and was adapted by Nigerians. Well, Nigerians seem to do this a lot, but the good thing is whatever they touch becomes gold (you know just they way Nigerians did Jollof)

Ewa Agoyin is a popular "kinda of street food". Although you can say this is simply mashed beans served with some sauce. But it is more than just beans and some sauce, it is a special kind of signature sauce.  And the way the beans was cooked as well, oh dear! You really have to taste it to get it. This food brings back memories of my days in  Lagos. It was part of Ahmodu's (that was our gate man at the time) job to spot the Agoyin seller when she hawks past in the morning, and me constantly asking from the window "she neva come" meaning is she here yet?.

Unfortunately, one never thought to ever ask them for the recipe at the time, so now living in far away land where its hard to find 'Ewa Aganyin' I have made several attempts to cook this at home. I have tried the sauce using only dried ground pepper and onions, this one i have used soaked dried pepper with onions. I honestly would not say it tastes exactly like that woman's own but it is close. So here we go, this how I cook Ewa Aganyin at home. 

Ingredients

For the Beans:

Black-Eyed Beans 

For the Sauce:

Palm-Oil

Dried Pepper

Scotch-bonnet (Rodo)

Onions

Ground Cray-Fish

Salt

Seasoning

For the beans, just cook until very soft and mushy, you can use a wooden spoon or a food processor to complete this process. How mushy it is, is up to your preference. But it usually very mushy more than the one in the pix.

For the stew:

I soaked the peppers overnight, and blend with some onions and scotch-bonnet

In a pot pour in a generous amount of palm oil, once hot pour in sliced onions and fry. Fry until almost burnt

Pour in the roughly blended pepper

Don't throw away the pepper seeds, I drained and used in the sauce

Keep frying whilst constantly stirring to avoid burning the colour will change from the reddish pepper colour to like a dark brown

Finally, add a little ground crayfish, salt and seasoning to taste.

Serving suggestion with fried plantain wrapped around it, you can enjoy with fresh Agege Bread, some boiled yam or on its on with gari. Yum!!