Moin-Moin (Nigerian Savory Black-eyed Pea Cake)

Happy New Year!

As you know, it's supposed to be lucky to eat black-eyed peas on New Year's Day. Every year around this time I scour my cookbooks and my imagination for new ways to cook them because the way I grew up eating them was, frankly, a little boring--as well as not vegetarian. Last year I made Creole Black-eyed Peas, and though I missed New Year's by a few days, I think I had a fairly lucky year. I renewed my luck in May by making Spicy Collards and Black-eyed Peas--two lucky foods in one dish. One of my favorite black-eyed pea dishes, Texas Caviar, hasn't made an appearance on this blog, and since it's a salad, I think it will have to wait until the temperature is above freezing.

When I read about moin-moin (or moyin-moyin), a savory Nigerian pudding or cake made of black-eyed peas, I was very intrigued. Information about it was hard to come by, however, because every website I found was passing around the same, identical recipe. Finally, I happened upon a post by Fran Osseo-Asare --complete with video--at BetumiBlog that filled in all the blanks. I learned a great trick for getting the skins off of the black-eyed peas (you literally rub the black-eyes off, what fun!) and discovered that you can cut up pieces of moin-moin and serve it on toothpicks as an appetizer, as shown above.

Moin-moin seems to be very versatile: You can eat it cold or hot, as a part of a meal or as a snack. There are similar dishes made of ground black-eyed peas throughout western and central Africa, including akara, a fritter with mostly the same ingredients. The traditional way to make moin-moin is to steam it in banana leaves or, when they are not available, aluminum foil. For my first attempt at making moin-moin, I used small ramekins instead--or, to be more exact, I used the six ramekins I had and used foil packets for the other two servings. Dealing with the ramekins was easier than making and filling foil packets, so that is the technique that I'm illustrating here. If you're interested in using aluminum foil, do check out the videos on the BetumiBlog.

These little cakes or puddings are mildly seasoned, which seems to be traditional, but have the strong, characteristic taste of black-eyed peas. I found no mention of serving them with any type of sauce, but being a saucy Louisianian, I couldn't resist eating them with some spicy cocktail sauce (a mixture of ketchup, horseradish, and hot sauce). Their mild flavor would be complemented by any number of sauces, though give them a try alone first so that you can appreciate their simple, savory flavor. Serve them with some Quick and Delicious Collards and reap your lucky rewards in the new year!



Moin-Moin
(printer-friendly version)

1 cup dried black-eyed peas
1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
1 roasted red pepper (or 1 fresh, seeded red pepper)
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1/4 cup vegetable broth
1 1/2 - 2 teaspoons Old Bay Seafood seasoning (see Note)
1 teaspoon salt (or to taste--see Note)
1/4 teaspoon white pepper

Wash the peas and pick over them to remove any debris. Put them into a large bowl and cover with hot water at least two inches above the level of the peas. Soak for at least one hour.

Drain off the soaking water and place the peas in a food processor. Pulse briefly about 12 times, until peas are just barely broken.

After pulsing

Pour the peas back into the bowl and cover with water. Rub the peas between your hands, removing the skins. The skins will float to the top. Pour off the skins, into a colander, and repeat this process several times.

Skins in the colander

Once the skins are removed, the peas will be white. It's not necessary to get off every single skin, but try to remove as many as possible.

Black-eyes removed

Put the skinned peas back into the processor. Add the chopped onion, roasted red pepper, tomato paste, and about 2 tablespoons of vegetable broth. Process until completely smooth (this may take a few minutes, depending on your processor).

Pour the mixture back into the bowl. Stir in the Old Bay seasoning (or other, see Note below), salt, and white pepper. Add a tablespoon or two of vegetable broth, if necessary, to make a thick but pourable slurry.

Heat water in a steamer or deep pot with a steamer basket set over it. Oil 8 ramekins. Pour a scant 1/2 cup of the batter into each ramekin and cover with aluminum foil. Set ramekins into steamer.

Ramekins in double-decker steamer

Steam for about 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a ramekin comes out fairly clean.

Keep covered with foil to preserve moistness until ready to serve.

Note: You may use any seasoned salt instead of the Old Bay and salt. Use about 1 1/2 - 2 teaspoons and add more to taste.

Makes 8 cakes. Per serving (2 cakes): 158 Calories (kcal); 1g Total Fat; (3% calories from fat); 10g Protein; 29g Carbohydrate; 0mg Cholesterol; 606mg Sodium; 5g Fiber. Weight Watchers: Core / 2 Points.