Boiled Beans
Aperçu
Black-eyed peas soaked, cooked until tender and seasoned with salt. That is the entire recipe, and it is deliberately so: this is the base that a great many Nigerian bean dishes are built from, and it is eaten plainly in its own right. In Nigerian usage, beans without further qualification usually means black-eyed peas, ewa in Yoruba, agwa in Igbo, wake in Hausa. They are indigenous to West Africa, domesticated there thousands of years ago and carried to the Americas through the transatlantic slave trade, which is why they are as central to Southern American cooking as to Nigerian. Eaten plainly, boiled beans go with a pepper sauce, fried plantain, fried yam or bread, and that combination, beans and bread, beans and dodo, is everyday food across the country. From this same pot come the more elaborate dishes: ewa agoyin with its dark fried pepper sauce, honey beans, beans porridge. Two things in the method deserve keeping. Picking through dried beans for stones is not fussiness, small stones do get through commercial sorting and they break teeth. And salting only at the end is correct, because salt added early toughens the skins and lengthens the cooking considerably. The source's extensive nutritional and weight-loss claims have not been carried across.
Note de Patrimoine AFN
Black-eyed peas are indigenous to West Africa, where they were domesticated thousands of years ago and carried to the Americas through the transatlantic slave trade. In Nigeria they are known as ewa in Yoruba, agwa in Igbo and wake in Hausa, and boiled beans form the base of a range of dishes.
Ingrédients
Les mentions alimentaires sont fournies par les contributeurs à titre indicatif. Elles ne sont pas vérifiées par AFN et dépendent des produits que vous achetez. En cas d’allergie grave, vérifiez vous-même chaque ingrédient. Cuisine, allergies et votre propre jugement
Préparation
- 1
Pick carefully through the dried beans and remove any stones or debris. Commercial sorting is not perfect and a stone will break a tooth.
- 2
Soak the beans in cold water overnight. This shortens the cooking time and reduces the compounds that cause discomfort and wind.
- 3
Drain, rinse, and put the beans in a pot with fresh water covering them by at least two inches.
- 4
Cook over high heat for about 30 minutes.
- 5
Season with salt only now, near the end, salt added early toughens the skins and lengthens the cooking considerably.
- 6
Lower the heat and cook gently for a further 10 minutes or so, until completely tender.
- 7
Serve with pepper sauce and fried plantain or yam, or alongside rice or bread.
Notes de l’Africook
Notes personnelles de Nena Ubani- Pick through the beans properly. It takes two minutes and it is the one step nobody regrets.
- Salt at the end, not the beginning. Early salting toughens the skins and the beans can take twice as long to soften.
- Soak overnight if you can. It cuts the cooking time substantially and makes the beans easier to digest.
- Discard the soaking water and cook in fresh. That is where much of what causes wind ends up.
- Cook until genuinely tender. Undercooked beans are unpleasant and hard on the digestion.
- This is a base rather than a destination. From here you can go on to ewa agoyin, beans porridge or honey beans.
Questions fréquentes
What beans does this recipe mean?
Black-eyed peas, which is what beans usually means in Nigerian usage without further qualification, ewa in Yoruba, agwa in Igbo, wake in Hausa. They are a cowpea variety indigenous to West Africa, domesticated there thousands of years ago. Other beans work with the same method, though cooking times differ considerably: kidney and cannellini beans take much longer, while lentils and split peas take far less and need no soaking.
Do I have to soak them overnight?
It is not strictly necessary but it helps in two ways. Soaking shortens the cooking time substantially, and it draws out some of the oligosaccharides responsible for the wind that beans are known for, which is why the soaking water should be discarded rather than cooked in. If you have not planned ahead, an hour in hot water gets you part of the way, and unsoaked beans simply need longer in the pot.
Why salt at the end?
Because salt added at the start toughens the skins of dried beans and can dramatically lengthen the time they take to soften. The effect is real enough that beans salted early sometimes never become properly tender. Adding it in the last ten minutes seasons them perfectly well. The same applies to acidic ingredients like tomatoes and vinegar, which should also go in after the beans have softened.
What is it eaten with?
Pepper sauce and fried plantain is the classic pairing, and beans with bread, agege bread in particular, is everyday food across Nigeria. Fried yam works the same way. It also sits alongside rice as part of a larger meal. Plain boiled beans is really a starting point: ewa agoyin with its dark fried pepper sauce, honey beans and beans porridge all begin with this same pot.
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