Moi Moi is a popular Nigerian dish made out of beans. Its actually one of my favourite dishes, best enjoyed when cooked in local banana leaves although you can steam in it ramekins or foil tins. In this recipe, I will be using ramekins and baking it in the oven since I do not have local leaves. This recipe is inspired by my mum, she always used ginger & garlic in moi-moi and I could differentiate my mum's moi-moi from another by just tasting it LOL! I am sure you will love this one.

To make this you will need:

3 cups Honey or brown Beans

1 large thumb Ginger

6 medium cloves garlic

4 -5 large paprika (tatashe)

3 large scotch bonnet or habanero pepper (rodo)

1 cup shredded smoked Mackarel

1 cup sunflower oil

4 small bouillon cubes (Knorr or any other)

Salt to taste – 2 teaspoons

Eggs

3 medium sized onions

Method

1.  Peel the beans by soaking it in little water and rub between your hands to get the skin off the beans. Rinse out the beans and continue rubbing till all the skin is off. Alternatively if you have a food processor you can peel the beans using the pulse function 3-4 times @ 20 – 30 seconds each. After which you rinse out! Its my favourite method, quick and easy.

2. Wash and shred your mackerel, clean the peppers, boil your eggs, peel ginger and garlic. Prepare your ramekins by greasing them with oil or butter.

3.  I find that key to a soft fluffy moi-moi is the blender and consistency of the batter.  You will need a very powerful blender that can blend your beans smooth & you will need a fluid consistency – not thick if not your moi-moi will come out hard and not too watery either. 

4.   Before blending especially in a blender, soak the beans in warm water for 30 – 60minutes; this would make it easier to blend. Now blend the beans, garlic ginger, onions and pepper.

5.   After blending, pour into a clean bowl, add in your oil – mix well until incorporated into the batter.

6.   Add in Knorr cubes and salt and mix well. Mix as long as you can until the spices are well combined into the batter. If you have a hand mixer, bravo makes it quicker. One tip I find very good is that I melt the bouillon cube (knorr) and salt into about three table spoons of hot water. That way it is easier to incorporate into the batter.

7.   Now add in smoked mackerel, eggs (boiled if you wish)- if you don’t want it boiled you will have to break the eggs directly into each ramekin or leaves with the batter; it steams either way. 

8.   Now the next thing will be to pour in the mixture into your ramekins or foil tins – breaking one egg each into them. The egg steams that way and you cut time by not boiling eggs. Or simply add in your boiled eggs in each ramekin.

7.    Get a ceramic bowl or oven pan and pour in some water and place in the oven to boil/steam, the whole essence is to steam the batter so its moist and not dry - which is likely to happen if exposed to direct heat in the oven. 

8.     Cover each ramekin with a foil and place them on the oven rack above the boiling water in the oven. Moi moi will take about 60 minutes to steam in the oven..

9.      Once it is cooked, Moi Moi is ready to eat! Can be served with Garri (cassava), bread, millet (ogi) or cooked oats. The choice is yours!

Enjoy! Please feel free to let me know how your moi-moi turns out.

Till next time,

Joba xx