It is definitely Moin Moin season on the blog, or more like anything to do with peeled beans. Ever since I discovered how to peel beans in a blender (procedure HERE), all the dishes I had previously ignored have come crawling out of the wood works. First it was Ekuru (recipe HERE), then Akara pancake (recipe HERE), today it is Moin Moin. My next step is the Big Daddy of them all, Gbegiri which I am also itching to make soon.
Why Eclectic Moin Moin? Well, the definition of eclectic is “deriving ideas, style, or taste from a broad and diverse range of sources“. Well, this describes this moin moin perfectly. I was just explaining to a colleague recently what Moin Moin was, and he said he was going to try it out. He is English mind you, and the way I described Moin Moin to him was that it is at best a blank canvas of blended beans. Take peeled beans, blend it and then get creative with it. You can add anything you wish to it. It’s time we think of Moin Moin like Pizza. We have been too traditional and limiting with it. Make it a meaty deluxe version, or fish and seafood, you could even have a veggie moin moin, or a vegan moin moin, I am even extending it as far as adding dairy to it, cream or even cheese. If the idea of adding cheese to it is scary, you could make a creamy chilliy sauce and serve with it. Let us make it a challenge for us today to think outside the box where Moin Moin is concerned. The next time you make it, add something that you have never used before, even it is just one new ingredient, and then get bolder to push the envelope from there. The link to my previous Moin Moin Elemi Plenty recipe is HERE.
Lets work through our local spices and for example, uziza will be great with Moin Moin, so would ehuru, or Uda. Something extra to give it a kick. Or our local vegeables, efinrin (scent leaf, nchawu, ntong) for one. Something your taste buds won’t be expecting. I still went traditional with this one, but it is eclectic in a way because I pulled ideas from different sources, used different types of similar ingredients, and it was very delicious. My totally new ingredient was Pomo (cow skin). Instead of cooking it on its own, I created a rich fish stock of 2 types of strong flavoured smoked fish. If you have run out of beef stock for Moin Moin, just make a fish stock. Here’s how I made my Eclectic Moin Moin.
You will need
3 cups of brown beans
3/4 cup of Pomo – you could replace this with smoked goat meat or turkey
1/2 cup Smoked catfish
1/4 cup smoked red prawns
2 boiled eggs
1/4 cup Ground crayfish
1 cooking spoon of Sunflower oil
1 1/2 cooking spoons of Palm Oil
1 Tatashe – red bell pepper
2 small onions
1 stump of ginger
2 pieces of ata rodo – scotch bonnet/habanero pepper
Fresh small prawns
Fresh giant Shrimps
Salt Seasoning cubes
How To
1. Add the smoked fish, smoked red prawns, ponmo and chopped onions into a pot, add enough water to cover them, season with a little salt and bring to boil till the ponmo gets soft enough to chew easily.
2. Soak the beans for 5 minutes or under in cold water. Peel the skin off by pulsing in a blender, rinse out the chaff and blend. The procedure to do this can be found HERE
3. Blend the beans with tatashe, ata rodo, onions and ginger till you have a smooth paste
4. Mix the vegetable oil with the palm oil and heat up in the microwave for about a minute and a half. Remember to use a cover to prevent splashes. Once the oils are hot, add to the bean paste. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: it is advisable to heat up the palm oil to prevent a curdling taste on your tongue.
5. By now the ponmo should be soft, so would the other contents of the pot. Empty the entire contents into the bean batter and stir. Add the ground crayfish and stir too. If the batter is not sufficiently liquid enough, add warm water gently till you get to a consistency where the batter is dripping. Thick batter = hard moin moin. Fluid batter = soft, moist moin moin. The picture below, should give you an idea of how liquid your batter should be.
6. Once you’ve gotten the consistency right, season with salt and seasoning cubes. Now, there is one tip I had forgotten about until my Mum mentioned it during her visit last year. Mummy’s Kitchen Tip: when you make moin moin, you season it to the point it is slightly salty, so that when it steams or bakes, the salt level will be just right. When she means slightly salty, not to the extent you will cringe when you taste the uncooked batter, but to the point that, if this was soup you were cooking to be served immediately, you will dilute it a little with water to get back to normal levels. i.e. go slightly above the level of your everyday cooking salt levels. Again, slightly. Not with seasoning cubes mind you, just salt.
To be sure I would be able to replicate her absolutely scrumptious Moin Moin, I divided the batter into two. One I seasoned to normal salt levels, the other I went slightly above, when they say don’t argue with your mother, it is not just a something concocted to make you a good child. hehehehe. Disobedience doesn’t pay sometimes. Lol. The batch using her tip tasted miles better than the other batch. The other batch tasted great no doubt, but it lacked in salt. So, if you have always wondered why your batter which tasted delicious before you cooked it, is a little underwhelming when it was done, now you know why. The steaming process dilutes the concentration of salt.
7. Slice the eggs and prep the rest of your toppings
8. Spoon the bean batter into your choice of containers. Finish off with the rest of your toppings and steam. If you want the leafy flavour but haven’t been successful with wrapping it, click HERE to find an alternative to wrapping, but still using the leaves.
9. Then you steam in a pot, or bake in an oven at 200 degrees centigrade for 45 – 50 minutes, and that’s your Eclectic Moin Moin done and ready to enjoy.
…….Isn’t that a beauty? The combination of vegetable and Palm oil is a must try
I’m entertaining this weekend, and I already have very grand plans for this Moin Moin. A little twist to it, that will make you wonder why Moin Moin hasn’t been used in this way since. Stay tuned…………………….
Lovely recipe. I am planning to make moi moi today and i will follow this recipe and give feedback. I hope it turns out as great as yours 🙂
Thanks. Please try it out and let me know
firstly, I love your blog and I wish to be your IT food student, lol. cooking makes me happy even when am sad. I moved to U.S ( Bellevue WA) few months ago, all the food stuffs I brought from Naija are finished and the International and African market around me only sells their country’s food. Infact, I had to get my palm oil and knor cubes from amazon. But couldn’t find other food stuffs, It’s so hard eating the same food daily and weekly as I only cook beans,egg and bread, semolina, fries, okro and molochia ,white, jollof, and fried rice. Then there’s no brown beans around save kidney beans, hence I only buy the black eye white beans, which I only started eating when I exhausted my oloyin beans.
I have prepared moinmoin and akara with it, but its always bitter that sometimes I wouldn’t be able eat them. I later found out that no matter how little the onion I blend with it, it makes it bitter.
As I love moinmoin and akara a lot, Is there anyway you help with how to prepare these to make them tasty. Then, I would love to tryout moinmoin with your recipes but there’s no way I can get these ingredients in this bush I dey live.
Thank God, ith your blog, I think I can find a way to prepare new foods, but I fear I might not be able to do much since I can’t find any market selling these ingredients.
Lastly, pls, do you have any idea of any African market in WA as all the so called international market and African market around me sells only their country’s food. Thanks.
Love your blog!.
Hi ruqqayah, I live in the UK, and I really wouldn’t know what stores are around. if you could join So You Think You Can Cook on Facebook, ask these questions and I sure, someone in your area would respond. Black eyed white beans shouldn’t be bitter in moin moin and akara. I have tried it several times myself and have no problems with it. Take out the onion next time and lets see. thanks for the compliments
Pls Dooney, can I use baking pans to bake moinmoin?
Yes you can
Hi Dooney,my moi moi always comes out watery and under cooked even after cooking for a long time.sure am not getting something right pls kindly advise and how do I bake them?do I put water under the baking pan?
You are most likely adding too much water when blending the beans, or mixing it with too much water after blending. Moin Moin should have the consistency of half melted ice cream. For baking, pour the bean paste mixture into the pan. Adding water in another baking tray and placing beneath the baking pan helps to keep the oven nice and moist
Thank you very much Dooney will sure try it again and let u know.
Please do
Best blog ever………..God bless you
Thank you so much Nnenna
#Doro Dooney my role model ,
May God Bless you more abundantly Amen. this Moin- Moin thing is killing me slowly. I don’t eat moin-moin because of the white beans (Akara Beans) I started eating beans newly and the only one I eat is “brown beans” I was wondering if I can make it with brown beans and planned asking in SYTYCC before I saw this post infact #MayGodblessyoumore#. secondly I see other peoples coconut moin-moin on SYTYCC and I want to know if I can add the coconut milk in this recipe and HOW?
I want to give my first try this weekend
Thanks in advance for your reply.
Yes, yes, yes, you can make it with brown beans. To mkae coconut moin moin, just add coconut milk to the recipe. Please let me know how it turns out
Hi Dunni! Huge fan of your blog and let’s say I’ve tried several recipes and they came out great! I want to try this moin moin recipe but I’m allergic to catfish and don’t like ponmo. Can you please suggest alternatives? Thanks
Try any other fish you can tolerate. If you are allergic to fish in general, please leave it out. To replace pomo, try fried/grilled goat meat
Hello Dunni, been trying to drop comments for a while. Thank you soooo much for all these amazing recipes. My husband has been away for a while ( military wife things) he would be totally blown away, by the amazing and delicious food he is coming back to. ( He is due back nxt week, by GOD’s grace) Muchos gracias. GOD bless you real good.
Aaaaaw, Amen Bashirat. I am sure your husband is in for a treat when he gets back. make the most of his time at home
Hi dooney am new here,pls what vegetable is right under the moin moin.i want to try this cuz i can’t get my eyes of it
Welcome to the blog F8ish. I used spinach
hiya dunni i tried the moi moi recipe and it turned out great i ate 3 and trust me i was holding myself from eating it all since i only made a little i didnt know it would turn out great my hubby loved it and trust me when i say God has used u to help my marriage ever since i cooked jollof rice following ur recipe my hubby now tells every one that i cook the best jollof rice the oda day he had 3 plates lol i love u so much dunni and i pray that God grants u all ur heart desires and i pray that u find true happiness.u should see the way i make shakara when he’s begging me to cook now because i now know what to do unlike before
Amen, Amen, Amen. Really happy to help, you guys make it all worth it. Thank you for the feedback, you made me smile this morning
Hi dunni, urban blog has really been a source of joy and inspiration.. Helps me alot. Whenever am cooking. I just pick my phone and look it up whenever I get stucked
.please I wanna ask,which is better out of blender and food processor to grind Moimoi/akara…my blender doesn’t grind the pepper without me seeing the seeds of the pepper, so I usually sieve it. But I avnt tried food processor before.,plus any advice customers I hate grinding from all these local grinders in the market,they usually not healthy
Plus help.thanks and God bless
Hi dunni…
May I just add now that may God continue to bless you.
I am not confident in my cooking at all..I usually run away from it..I am in a very serious relationship now and I can no longer run..thing is..I love good food and always wish I can replicate them but I can’t..usually have a problem with determining the right salt quantity..even if I taste. What do you think I can do to help..
Dunni, God bless you cos your website has given me hope..it’s like Salvation..Lol.
thank you soo much. I’m glad I found your blog before getting married. Hubby will chop ehnnn..Lol.
thanks again. Pls help with my salt/seasoning issue. What do I do?
Aaaaaw, thank you so much and should I say congratulations in advance. Good on you to at least want to make the effort. With salt, one of the best ways to detect the volume you need is to not eat too many things at the same time, because it will influence your taste buds. Taste your food, if you are not sure, drink lots of water to cleanse your palate, and then try again. I usually taste my food almost 10 times before I am done, so continue tasting till you are sure. If you think you need more, add it by pinches, and I mean a pinch or two, until your confidence builds up to the point you can gauge how much you need. Cooking is more about practice than anything, and with time you will be able to season food in your sleep. I hope that helps
1st tyme here. Jst experimented d pulsing for removin beans n it was cool n fast too. Tanks n also ive bin having probs wit makin moin moin lately so wil try followin ur steps. Welldone
Hi Dooneyskitchen, i just saw this and looks exactly like your picture too: http://www.knorr.ng/recipes/detail/14242/1/moin-moin
It is my picture