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
teekay says
June 19, 2014 at 1:04 pmthanks Dooney for this.God bless you.
dooneyrooney says
June 19, 2014 at 2:40 pmYou are welcome teekay
Queen says
June 19, 2014 at 2:57 pmThanks Dooney. You are just awesome! Please how can this be achieved at the public mill? I have a blender but it does not blend smoothly and I end up going to the public mill.
dooneyrooney says
June 19, 2014 at 3:07 pmIf you measure your beans and water before you leave the house, just tell the person operating the machine not to add any more water. Your blender may not be blending smoothly if you overload it with beans. A little at a time, and it should blend smoothly. Likewise, you can soak the peeled beans in warm water for 30minutes and then blend
Queen says
June 20, 2014 at 8:14 amThank you!
dooneyrooney says
June 20, 2014 at 1:58 pmYou are welcome Queen
Żûrįęllę says
June 19, 2014 at 4:48 pmHi Dooney,
Maths was never my A-game,neither is Akara(only made a successful one once). So I marked it off my cooking list. But will try this method over the weekend,if it works????!!!!!! I know my husband will be super happy with me soooooo thanks a lot!!!!!!!!!!!
dooneyrooney says
June 20, 2014 at 2:19 pmTell me about that Maths, add Physicas join. Please try it and let me know. The ratio works for me and i would love to hear it worked for other people
Colette says
June 19, 2014 at 5:44 pmHi sweet D, welldone plenty plenty. I was the one who hated green plantains, but u have changed that. I am a disciple of your blog. Pls could you help me with a pina colada receipe, that thing is chopping about half of my lean salary. I would loooove to be able to make it at home. Thank you.
dooneyrooney says
June 20, 2014 at 2:09 pmYaaaaay, i love reading food convert stories. Pina colada is quite simple to make. I have attached a recipe for one i found online. http://www.drinksmixer.com/drink4300.html
Colette says
June 24, 2014 at 11:59 pmThank you sweet D, very helpful.
dooneyrooney says
June 25, 2014 at 9:19 amYou are welcome Colette. Happy to help
LBA says
July 3, 2014 at 5:04 pmSo.. I had 3.5 cups of peeled beans and I used 1.75cups of water to blend it. I am one of those naija cooks that just instinctively know how much salt, water, pepper, etc to add without measuring. Anyway, my akara was hard!!!!! I wanted to add more water since it has been years since I made it but I was like follow instruction for once in your life. I also used a hand mixer after blending.. I was in a mad rush for Iftar. It tasted good but it was hard and not the light fluffy thing I was expecting. Thanks for the tip on chopping the rodo and onions too….. what do you think went wrong??
dooneyrooney says
July 3, 2014 at 6:56 pmI would have rounded the 1.75 cups of water to two cups. It also depends on how tightly packed the beans are in the cup. Also if you don’t whip enough air into akara, it won’t be fluffily. Even with my whisk, i let it whip air into it till the akara almost doubles.
LBA says
July 3, 2014 at 7:59 pmI won’t give up. Will try again since everything was so easy. Yes, whisking increased the volume and I was also careful to just fold in the other ingredients. I didn’t pack the beans in my cup so a little more water should do the trick. I m an engr hence the precision lol.My bobo was just happy to get akara. Thank you for the prompt feedback.
dooneyrooney says
July 3, 2014 at 9:45 pmI believe a little more water would do the trick
Halima says
August 10, 2014 at 9:41 amHello dooney, I know you’ve converted everyone back to using whole beans and not flour for moi moi but it would be nice to have the same measurements for bean flour too 😉
dooneyrooney says
August 14, 2014 at 11:12 amHmmmmn Halima, as much as I am a 2014 Nigerian cook, I don’t believe in that flour at all. Sorry about that