I’m a big fan of showing our traditional foods respect. This can be done in different ways – presenting them more beautifully, pairing them more creatively, preparing them more consciously, or giving them pride of place on your menu. Moin moin is simply a steamed bean cake, often steamed in leaves and stuffed with different fillings such as eggs, fish, corned beef or prawns. It is usually a side dish, but for this, I decided to show it some love by making it a dramatic starter. The saltiness of the caviar goes so well with the umaminess of the beans and the egg is a nice stabilising force between the two. Of course, the traditional method of making moin moin requires you to soak, peel, and blend the beans, and then wrap it in moin moin leaves to steam. This is a very worthy and very delicious process, a labour of love. But sometimes, the luxury of time is just not something we have, and so I developed this version using pure bean flour which means you can whip this amazing dish up for your guests in 30 minutes rather than 3 hours.

 

Ingredients

1/2 cup bean flour ( I used Ayoola Beans Flour)

1 cup water

2 tablespoons chilli garlic hot sauce

2 teaspoons ground crayfish

4 tsp olive oil 

½ teaspoon salt

3 teaspoons really good quality caviar

2 boiled eggs, cut into wedges

Parsley to garnish (or any other herb)

 

Method

1. Whisk all ingredients (except the eggs, caviar and parsley) in a bowl until well combined. 
2. Pour the moin moin batter into greased, small ramekins or foil cups and steam in a pot until firm. 
3. When the moin moin is ready let cool slightly and then turn out onto a dish.
4. Place a wedge of boiled egg, and a dollop of caviar on each moin moin mound. Garnish with parsley and serve. 

 

 

This recipe is from Season 1 Episode 6 of Minjiba Entertains, commissioned by The Africa Channel and showing on RealTime DSTV Channel 155, Emirates in-Flight Entertainment, Amazon Prime, and Demand Africa.