Ewa Agonyin

Warning, this is not at all a healthy dish! Just a much loved one which should be eaten sparingly. 

I grew up hating beans in all its variations – akara, moin moin, porridge, rice and beans – name it, I hated it. That is, until I one day tasted Ewa Goyin. I felt like I had finally met my beans love. I proceeded to polish off the entire plate of beans and have not looked back since.

My only misgiving about Ewa Goyin is the fact that it is so reliant on Palm Oil. When you buy it from a Buka (the equivalent of street food), expect to have a lot of oil swimming at the bottom of your bowl unless you give strict instructions otherwise.

After years of relying on others to cook it for me (all of the recipes I was given in the past did not work), a Togolese lady showed me how to make this. It is so easy, it is unbelievable. The best thing about this recipe is that it is really basic. You can decide to alter it by adding other things on – Fish, shrimps, iru (locustbeans) e.t.c, depending on what sort of taste you are going for. An advantage to making your own is that you can somewhat control the amount of Palm Oil that goes into the dish.

Another best thing about this sauce is that you don’t need a fridge to preserve it. It can be left on the kitchen counter and used up over a month or so. 

To summarize, you will need the following ingredients:

1 cup pepper seeds

1 cup Palm Oil

1 red Onion

Salt to taste.

To prepare:

  1. Pour hot water over pepper seeds and leave overnight. Cover this as soon as you pour the hot water as the entire area will soon be pervaded with the sharp smell of peppers. 
  2. Now, blend pepper (water and all) with an onion. 
  3. Heat Palm Oil. Add mixture and fry until you get to the consistency (pictured below). At this point most of the water has evaporated. Add Salt to taste. Voila! Done!!

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