Ekuru issa banger!

There is more to what can be done with beans than bean cake and Moin-Moin. In the Yoruba language, “gbaèkuru je l’ówóebora” means to be death’s guest. This idiom may then give an outsider reasons to dread èkuru or cooked bean cake. But a typical Yoruba person knows better, as the meal is a delectable one for the palate.

Ingredients:

Beans, onions, pepper, salt, seasoning (optional)

Procedure

Pour a desired amount of beans into water and marsh with hands or pestle till the coating comes off and the seeds are bare. Soak the beans in water but don’t leave it to be too turgid before draining the water.

Grind the beans such that very little water is added during the process. Collect the water residue from the rinsing of the grinder in a container.

With the aid of pestle, stir the paste until it rises and becomes very fluffy. If during this process the paste is too thick, add little water from the one collected after grinding. The paste should be moderately thick, however.

After getting the pot ready and filling it with some water, mould the paste into clean broad leaves meant for cooking and gentle arrange them into the it. Note that the amount of water will be determined by the quantity and size of the leaves moulded leaves. It is advisable to layer the pot with straws from the leaves so that the food doesn’t get burnt easily.

Leave to boil for 30 – 40 minutes depending on the source of heat.

While the paste boils, get ready your ground ball pepper. The pepper should not be too smooth but chaffy to an extent.

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Make small and thin chops of onion.

Heat up abundant palm oil and pour the onions first. Allow to fry for a minute before adding the pepper. If preferred, seasoning may be added. Fry until the pepper begins to slightly coagulate. Remove from heat source.

Unwrap the boiled clumps of cooked beans, ladle the stew on top and add appropriate quantity of salt from the crucible.

Gently marsh everything together with fingers until the clump breaks into fine grains and the stew mixes uniformly. This is when the abundance of the palm oil is appreciated.  As a moderately heavy meal, èkuru is usually eaten as breakfast and lunch.

About our cook

Our cook for the week, Bimpe Fakomiti, is a graduate of Federal College of Agriculture, Akure and presently works as an extension worker with the Ministry of Agriculture, Ekiti State. When off work, she bakes, makes snacks and liquid soap.

Picture credit: Sisi Jemimah, google