Nigerian Moi Moi (Beans Pudding)

Moi moi (beans pudding) is one of such Nigerian dessert that is enjoyed by virtually everyone. moi moi is made of beans and some other ingredients. The process of making moin moin (as some people call it) is a little bit complicating but I will try to be as detailed as possible since we are yet to produce a video for moi moi.


Here are the Ingredients required in making the plate of moi moi below, you are free to increase the quantity of ingredients or reduce them depending on the number of persons you are looking to feed. These ingredients would serve six persons depending on stomach size and other factors

Fresh fish (optional)
7 Cooked Eggs (optional)
Half cup of vegetable oil
Maggi (seasoning, 2 to 3 cubes)
Salt to taste.
1 cup of sliced onions
Tatashe or shobo (about 5 to 10, it add the reddish color)
Crayfish (1 cup)
3 cups of beans

What you find above are the images some of the ingredients for making beans pudding as well of that or ground moin moin on the left and right respectively.

There is a special kind of beans (moi moi beans) used for making beans pudding in Nigerian but you can substitute with any other type of beans if you live outside Nigeria.

You can use the cooked eggs, corned beef, fish of any kind or a blend of both to make moi moi. Here I used fish and eggs, I simply parboiled the fish, removed the center bones and split into smaller pieces

Preparation

Please add the beans into a bowl, sprinkle a handful of water and start squeezing with your hands. This is the easiest way to wash beans; you would be through in 20-30 minutes. You can add a little more water but don’t allow it to soak; continue squeezing until it starts shading off the outer coat, you’d probably be doing this for about ten minutes.

When it seems like a good amount of the beans have shaded off their outer-coat, add enough water to fill the bowl, the outer coat would rise to the top, sieve and continue squeezing. At some point there would be just very few that have not shaded off their outer coat, work on them and keep washing.

Wash the beans to remove the outer coat, keep squeezing, washing and sieving till you are left with the white beans then you can prepare for the grinding part.

There are people in Nigeria that render the service of grinding food stuff like moi moi or tomatoes in large quantity

Split the red tatashe or shobo into two halves to remove the seeds at the center, this practice is necessary because the seeds add a bitter unpleasant taste to moi moi. Wash and also pluck off the green stem at the top.

What I do at this point is to add all of them (beans, onions, crayfish and tatashe or shobo) in a small clean bucket and take to the commercial grinding mill. You can use a smart blender for this if you have one, I used my semi-smart blender and it didn’t do a perfect job but it was good enough.

Parboil the fresh /frozen fish, pick out from the water then pieces the fish with your fingers, not really squashing (leave in bits) Add this to the mixture. At this point you can also add corned beef in place of the fish or a blend of both.


While still in the bowl, add the oil just pour into the ground beans – about half cup, add 2 cubes of maggi seasoning, the fish water (fish stock) (which must not be over half cup or so) salt to taste. Taste the entire mixture.

The egg can be dropped on top after the moi-moi has been distributed in cooking plates, if you want to use eggs.

Distribute in as many plates as possible, some people use moi-moi wrappers for this purpose. After the distribution you can drop into the cooking pot.

If you are cooking with plates, you can drop the plates on top of each other but you must drop tiny logs of woods or pieces of clothes at the bottom of the pot to avoid burning (some people use the stem of the moi-moi-wrapper), you don’t really need them if you are careful.

Drop the plates in the pot and add water simultaneously making sure it doesn’t top the first plate. Then cover tightly and cook for about 40 to 60 minutes adding water at interval to avoid burning or too much water that would run into the plates.

This part is monitored closely because if you allow the pot to dry the plates would start melting especially if you are using plastic plates. Note that plastic plates can cook for hours without melting or getting burned, the exception is when the pot is completely dried.

You can bring out one of the plates after cooking for 40 minutes to check if it is done, check again after ten minutes, once it is done, allow to cool off for 30-60 minutes; then serve with pap (akamu), rice or custard

Nigerian moi moi (beans pudding) can also be served alone, I love this soooo much
do you love this meal?, have a question?, please leave a comment bellow.

How to Prepare Delicious Nigerian Nkwobi

This meal has been around for a very long time, At first it was made with just bush meat (edible wild animals), such as squirrel, grass cutter, rabbit and even antelopes, but along the line people starting experimenting with domestic animals and even poultry birds.

If you are among the people that are asking “what is nkwobi?” here is a simple definition; It is Igbo delicacy that is made with all kinds of meats, in a little while you will read all the processes involved in making it and why it is very popular within the eastern part of Nigeria. You will also learn about all the ingredients used in making it and different kinds of meats that could also be used.

I remember vividly the first time I had a plate of Nigerian nkwobi, it was very delicious and very pepperish, also you can use pepper to your taste. The last recipe I ate was made with chicken, but like I said initially, your choice of meat can vary but the methods remain the same.

Here are the ingredients that are used in making Nigerian nkwobi (for five to ten persons.)

2 kg Meat (chicken, wild meat, goat, cow tail, assorted meat)

2 cubes of knorr

Utazi leaves – a handfull

Edible potash (one teaspoon)

Palm oil (half cup) 125ml

Ugba – 1 cup

Onions – 2 slice

Salt and pepper to taste

The first step is parboiling the meat with some ingredients; onions, a cube of maggi/knorr and salt will be enough. Then allow to cook for another fifty to sixty minutes until the meat is completely soft.

This is necessary because nkwobi as well as Nigerian pepper soup is basically made with very soft meats, just so it is not hard to chew.

Most preparation processes take place in a small mortar, (an African carved hollow wood), but you can use a pot if you are not in Nigeria. This is just how it has been, some of Nigerian food customs have been around for years and we probably haven’t found a credible reason why they should be revoked.

Slice the onions and utazi, then set aside on a plate, some people choose to add these two during the preparation process while others use them for decoration purposes. One way or another, Utazi and onions should be part of the ingredients used in preparing Nigerian Nkwobi.

You can boil the ugba in small amount of water for about 2 to 3 minutes, this technique is hygienic, it helps to eliminate every possible health threat. Note that this ingredient is processed with the help of a harmless bacteria. This is just to be on the safe side even though most Nigerians eat ugba without heating in any way.

Cook the meat until it is almost dry, check to see the water level. This is important because you don’t end up with another kind of pepper soup, Stir the cooking meat in the pot to be sure that it doesn’t burn. Did I say that it is also necessary to cut the meat to tiny bits?

Dissolve the potash in about 150ml (half cup) of water and filter about half a cup into the pot, you will learn a little bit about this from the video below. You will know exactly how this is done, although most Nigerians are familiar with this technique.

Add about half a cup of palm oil into the pot, stir to obtain a thick yellow paste (ncha) and you are just few steps away from having a very delicious nkwobi, also add two spoons of ground crayfish, Ugba, pepper and salt to taste, then stir very well before adding the meat.

Note: If the meat is too hot, it would dislove the “ncha” and turn it redish> allow the meat to cool for 10 minutes before using.

Add the sliced onions and utazi but reserve a little of both for decoration. The utazi is very necessary because it adds a faint bitter taste which is an integral part of nkwobi and some other Nigerian foods.

Stir, turn out in a round plate and decorate with sliced onion, pepper and utazi. That is just how to make a delicious plate of the popluar Nigerian Nkwobi.