Moi Moi and Akara Without Peeling a Single Bean

Ask why people abroad stop making moi moi and the answer is always the same. It is not the steaming. It is the peeling.

Soaking beans, rubbing every skin off by hand, rinsing, rinsing again, then blending. It takes most of a morning, and after doing it twice most people quietly give up.

Beans flour removes the whole step

Beans flour is peeled beans, dried and milled. Same beans, same result, none of the morning.

Purists will tell you fresh-blended is better. They are slightly right and it does not matter, because the realistic comparison is not fresh-blended moi moi against flour moi moi. It is flour moi moi against no moi moi.

Moi moi

1. Whisk the flour gradually into warm water until smooth. You want thick pancake batter, pourable but not runny.
2. Let it stand ten minutes. It thickens as it hydrates. This is where people go wrong, adding more water before the flour has finished absorbing.
3. Blend in red pepper, onion, a little oil, ground crayfish and seasoning.
4. Add boiled egg, sardines or corned beef if you like.
5. Pour into leaves, tins or ramekins. Fill about three-quarters.
6. Steam 45 minutes to an hour. It is done when a knife comes out clean.

Getting the water right

Too much and it will not set, and you get bean soup. Too little and it comes out dense and dry.

Start with less than you think, wait ten minutes, then loosen. You can always add water. You cannot take it out.

Akara

Same flour, different handling.

1. Mix into a batter stiffer than for moi moi.
2. Whisk hard to beat air into it. Several minutes. This is the entire difference between light akara and heavy akara.
3. Season with chopped onion, pepper and salt.
4. Drop spoonfuls into hot oil and fry until deep golden.

If your akara comes out dense, you did not beat it enough. It should visibly lighten and increase in volume.

What to serve them with

Moi moi with jollof, with garri and cold water, or on its own.

Akara with pap, with bread, or with custard for a proper Nigerian breakfast.

If you would rather do it the old way

Fair enough. Black eyed peas peel more easily than brown beans, so start there. Soak twenty minutes, no longer, rub between your palms, and float the skins off.

We ship both the flour and the whole beans anywhere in the United States.