Moimoi is an outstanding dish in Nigeria. It’s one of the Nigerians best delicacies. It’s a steamed beans pudding with a mixture of beans and other ingredients: red ball pepper, chilli (Scotch bonnet) onions, fish and Shrimps. Including some other spices for additional flavour.
Nigerian Moimoi is always on the parties’ menu lists in Nigeria, which can be enjoyed as a main dish or as a side dish to other menus such as Jollof Rice, Fried rice, pap and so on.
Moimoi is so delicious and inviting when it’s well prepared, It’s fluffy and absolutely delicious. My Nigerian Moimoi recipe is perfect and simply the best.
There are different ways in which moimoi can be cooked, we can use banana leaves, foil cups and rubber cups.
You can either use a steamer to steam the Moi moi, your oven or your cooking gas for the cooking.
But if you are a Moimoi lover and you cook this often, it’s advisable to invest in a steamer. A steamer does the job better, it doesn’t dry out the Moimoi but otherwise makes it softer and more fluffy.
Most people think the Nigerian Moimoi recipe is not an easy recipe because you have to mix everything together before the cooking starts. So if you get it all wrong from the beginning, it will surely affect the end result.
But practice makes perfect thou. If this is your first time, just follow this my Nigerian Moimoi recipe to the letter for a perfect result.
Nigerian Moimoi Preparation method
- Soak the beans in water for 30 minutes in other get the skin off. the faster way to do this is by peeling the beans in the blender. Add them in batches like 3-4 times, add water to cover the beans, then on and pause the blender for about 2-3 times. In that way, you get all the skin peeled without much stress.
- After it’s being peeled, add water to cover the beans and wash until the skin is all gone.
- So, start adding them also in batches in your blender, don’t blend at once. For each of the batches, add the beans in the blender, add Red ball pepper, onions, scotch bonnet and garlic cloves. Add water to the level of the beans and blend into paste. it’s very important that the paste is really smooth.
- After everything is finally blended, pour all back in the blender at once and blend together. By then the paste might have doubled in size; this is called a fail-proof method. Pour back in a bowl to start missing other ingredients.
- Boil the eggs, season and cook the fish. After the fish is being cooked, shred and set aside, you may also want to cut each of the boiled eggs into two.
- If you’re using the banana leaf, wash them, drain the water and set aside.
If you like this recipe, you might also like:
Smoky Party Nigerian Jollof Rice
Moimoi: Best Nigerian Moimoi Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 cups beans
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil/ Palm oil or (50/50)
- 2 big Red ball pepper (Tatase)
- 1/2 cup fresh shrimps/ dry crayfish
- 1 big fresh fish2 scotch bonnet (atarodo)
- 6 boiled eggs
- 4 seasoning cubes
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 cup beef/chicken stock
- 1 big Onion
- 2 tablespoon grounded crayfish
- 2 uncooked eggs ( for binding)
Instructions
- Soak the beans for about one hour, peel, and remove the shaft.
- Divide into three parts to blend; add water to the level of the beans when blending. Blend with the onions, red ball pepper, cayenne pepper, and scotch bonnet (atarodo). Blend into smooth paste.
- After everything is finally blended, pour all back in the blender at once and blend together by then the paste might have doubled in size; this is called fail-proof method.
- Pour the beans paste into a large bowl to start adding the ingredients
- Add the vegetable oil first and mix properly into the paste.
- Add seasoning cubes, grounded crayfish, and salt (I normally dissolve my seasoning cubes and salt in warm water before adding in the paste).
- Break the eggs, whisk and add in the mixture for binding.
- Finally, add the shrimps and fish and mix everything together thoroughly.
- If you're using the banana leaves, place your cooking pot on medium heat, add water to boil (Do not add too much water, you can add more if the water later dries out) Add some banana leaves to cover the water, because we want the water to steam the Moi-Moi from under the leaves.
- Fold your banana leave into a cone shape and start adding the mixed beans paste. Add about 2-3 cooking spoons then add the boiled egg and neatly fold. Then drop in the pot on the heat.
- Repeat this process until the last wrap.
- Cover with some banana leaves before covering with the lid ( This allows for proper steaming)
- Cook for 45 minutes and the Moimoi is done.
- If you're using foil cups or the rubber cups for Moi-moi, distribute them in the cups and top with the boiled eggs and cover them with either the foil or the cups lids.
- Place them in the oven or your steaming pot to cook for about 45 minutes.
- Serve warm on it's own or as a side dish to other foods.
How to make moi moi