How to cook Nigerian Beans Porridge

Beans known as Ewa to the Yorubas are unpopular staple foods because it is associated with bloating, flatulence and indigestion. Most people have one reason or the other why they do not eat beans. Yet, it is advisable to to have beans in the family menu especially when you have young children in the family.
How to Cook Beans Porridge [Video Activity]
The cooking method detailed here will help eliminate the problems associated with beans. You can learn more about how you can prevent the problems associated with eating beans at: How to Reduce Beans Bloating.

Ingredients

• 3 cigar cups (approx. 750g) brown/black eyed beans
• Red palm oil (enough to colour)
• 1 medium onion
• Pepper & Salt (to taste)
• 1 big stock cube
• 500g Yam/Plantain/Sweet Potatoes/Baby Corn (Optional)

You can also add crayfish if you want but I prefer not to add it because it makes the beans have an over-seasoned taste.

Before you cook Beans Porridge

1. Soak the beans in cold water for 5 hours. Boil the beans for 5 minutes and discard the water. Wash the beans in cold water and set aside. This soaking and pre-cooking process will help reduce the gas inducing elements.
2. Chop the onions, grind the crayfish (if you are using it) and pepper.
3. If you will use yam/plantain/sweet potatoes, wash, peel and cut them into 1 inch cubes and set aside. If you will use baby corn, drain the preservation liquid, rinse and set aside.

Cooking Directions

1. Put the beans in a pot and pour water up to the level of the beans and start cooking.

   Note: If you have a pressure cooker, beans is one of the staple foods you will want to use it for. It reduces the cooking time considerably.

2. Cook till tender, adding more water from time to time, if necessary. Always keep the water at the same level as the beans so that when the beans is done, you will not have too much water in the porridge.
3. When the beans porridge is soft, add the onions, crayfish (if using it), pepper and seasoning.
4. Add the red palm oil, salt to taste and cook for more 5 minutes on medium heat.

   Note:To get the most out of beans, it is best to cook it with one of the following: sweet yam, ripe/unripe plantain, sweet potatoes or baby corn. If you will add any of these, this is when to do so. Then instead of cooking for 5 minutes, cook till the added yam / plantain / potatoes is done. The baby corn should be added when you turn off the heat in step 5.

5. Turn off the heat, add the baby corn (if you have chosen to use it), leave to stand for 5 minutes and turn the porridge with a wooden spoon.

The beans porridge is ready. If you cooked the beans porridge without any of the additions, serve with Fried Plantain, Fried Yam or fried sweet potatoes.

How to cook Nigerian Rice and Beans

How to Season and Grill Chicken

Chicken is used a lot when preparing Nigerian recipes, especially the Rice recipes and stew recipes. Chicken can also be eaten as a snack and washed down with a chilled drink.
How to Season & Grill (Broil) Chicken [Video Activity]

Ingredients

You want to season your chicken so that it will be very tasty and you also want to prepare it such that it will be presentable and appetizing.
Seasoning chicken is very easy and you only need a few ingredients. Most often, people think that you have to add all the spices and stock cubes in the world to make the chicken tasty. But what all these excess seasoning does to the chicken is to take away the natural flavour of the chicken. To season chicken, you only need these major spices and ingredients:

• Chicken: Hen (female chicken) is tougher and tastier than cockerel (male chicken) so when you go to buy chicken, ask your grocer or meat seller for the hen. This is called Gallina in Spanish. You should also buy a whole chicken and cut it up in pieces. Not only is it cheaper but you get the different parts of the chicken which adds to the flavour rather than just one part.
• Onions: White, yellow or red onions. Onions are very important when seasoning chicken.
• Thyme: This is very essential due to the aroma it adds to the chicken.
• Stock cubes: Maggi or Knorr are the brands that bring out the best taste in Nigerian recipes.
• Salt: Use salt sparingly when seasoning your chicken. Salt should be added when the chicken is done. Never add salt to raw chicken, see notes below for more information on what adding salt too early does to your chicken or beef.

You should also grill your chicken after cooking it rather than deep-fry it. If you have an oven, please grill your chicken because it is healthier. Grilling also makes the chicken taste better.

Directions for Seasoning and Grilling Chicken

1. Cut up the whole chicken to desired pieces. Most grocers or meat sellers will do this for you and save you the job.
2. Put the chicken pieces in a pot; add diced onions, thyme and stock cubes.
3. Pour enough water to just cover the contents of the pot and start cooking.
4. Since the hen is tough, it takes quite some time to get it well cooked. It usually takes me one hour 15 minutes on medium heat with a normal cooking pot to get it done to the way I like it. Depending on the heating capacity of your cooker, this may take less. Also if you use a pressure cooker, it will take even much less time so keep an eye on it so that it does not get too soft.
5. When the chicken is done, add some salt, cover the pot and leave to simmer for about 2 minutes. Adding salt at the beginning will make your chicken cook in more time because salt toughens the chicken and some other food stuff.
6. Transfer the chicken to a sieve to drain.
7. Then place them on your oven rack, place the rack as close to the grill (the top heater in your oven) as possible.
8. Switch your oven to "Grill" or if you are in the USA, "Broil" and set the temperature to 170°C or 338°F.
9. When the top side becomes brown, turn the pieces of chicken on the other side.
10. The chicken is well-grilled when both sides are brown.

Notes about cooking the chicken:

1. Add water up to the level of the contents of the pot when cooking the chicken.
2. When cooking chicken, I do not add salt to the raw chicken. This is because salt closes the pores of the chicken (and infact anything you are cooking), this prevents the natural flavour of the chicken from coming out into the surrounding water and prevents the seasoning from entering the chicken to improve the taste. The result is that your chicken stock will not have a rich natural taste. It will only have an artifical taste of seasoning.
   
   Salt also hardens the chicken hence it takes longer to cook.
   
   I only add salt when the chicken is done. A lot of people think that adding salt early makes the chicken taste better but there's a big difference between a salty taste and a rich taste. I believe that what gives food a rich taste is not salt but the natural flavour of the food so allow this natural flavour to come out into your stock by NOT adding salt too early. And remember, stock cubes already contain salt so you really don't need more salt.
3. I do not use Nigerian curry powder to season my chicken simply because it changes the colour of the chicken and gives it an artificial overpowering taste. You can add curry powder to stews that you use the chicken or beef for. But if you don't mind the colour and taste it gives the chicken, feel free to add it when steaming the beef or chicken.

Serve with all the Nigerian Rice recipes, Nigerian Moi Moi and Nigerian Salad. Feel free to snack on it with a chilled drink. Your guests will love you if you serve them grilled chicken.

Nigerian Jollof Rice (with Carrots & Green Pepper)

How to cook Rice and Beans

If you do not like beans when it is cooked alone like in Beans Porridge, then you need to try the rice and beans recipe.
How to cook Nigerian Rice & Beans [Video Activity]
One way to reduce the flatulence or indigestion associated with beans is to cook it with another staple and the rice and beans recipe is one of such recipes.

Ingredients

• 2 cigar cups (500g) long grain parboiled rice
• 1 cigar cup (250g) brown/black-eyed beans
• 500 mls Tomato Stew
• Chicken or Fish
• Pepper and salt (to taste)
• 2 medium onions
• 2 stock cubes
• 1 teaspoon thyme

Before you cook Rice and Beans

1. Wash and soak the beans for about 5 hours. Discard the water and rinse the beans.
2. Put the beans in a pot, pour some water and set to boil.
3. Once the beans starts boiling, turn off the heat, throw away the water and wash again. These steps will help minimize the indigestion associated with beans for most people.
4. Prepare the tomato stew. Visit the Tomato Stew page for details on how to do that.
5. Parboil the rice using the method detailed in Parboiling Rice for Cooking Rice and Beans.
6. Meanwhile, cook the chicken till tender with the chopped onions, thyme and stock cubes. If you will rather use fish, boil the fish for 5 minutes using the same amount of seasoning. Fry or grill the chicken or the fish and set aside.

Cooking Directions

1. Cook the beans till tender and set aside.
2. Pour the chicken/fish stock into a pot big enough to accommodate the rice and beans, bearing in mind that the rice will rise some more.
3. Add the tomato stew, the parboiled rice and the cooked beans. Check that the water level is just less than the level of the rice and beans.
4. Add pepper and salt to taste.
5. Stir, cover the pot and cook at low to medium heat till the water is dry.

Serve with the fried chicken or fish and Fried Plantain.

Turmeric Rice (Yellow Rice) with Onion Baked Chicken

Mixed Vegetables Jollof Rice

This Nigerian food is very similar to the basic Nigerian Jollof Rice. But it looks better and has a slightly different aroma and taste to it due to the added vegetables. Why not try something different for dinner by adding just 2 well-known vegetables?
Mixed Vegetables Jollof Rice [Video Activity]

Ingredients

• 3 cigar cups (750g) long grain parboiled rice
• 500mls Tomato Stew
• 5 medium carrots
• 1 big green bell pepper
• 1 whole chicken (hen)
• Chilli pepper (to taste)
• Salt (to taste)
• 2 medium onions
• 3 stock cubes
• 2 teaspoons curry powder (Nigerian curry powder)
• 1 tablespoon thyme

Notes on the ingredients

1. You can use only drumsticks or chicken breast.
2. You can use rooster or cockerel (male chicken) but hen (female chicken) tastes better.

Before you prepare Mixed Vegetables Jollof Rice

1. Prepare the tomato stew. Visit the Tomato Stew page for details on how to do that. It is advisable to prepare tomato stew before hand and keep in the freezer. This is so that whenever you want to cook any jollof rice related dish, it is just a matter of adding it to your cooking.
2. If you will use whole chicken then wash and cut it into pieces. Cook with the thyme, Knorr cubes and 2 bulbs of onions (chopped). The cooking time depends on the type of chicken. The rooster or cockerel cooks much faster than the hen but the hen is definitely tastier. When done, grill it in an oven. You may also fry it. This is to give it a golden look which is more presentable especially if you have guests for dinner.
3. Parboil the rice using the method detailed in parboiling rice for cooking jollof rice. Rinse the parboiled rice and put in a sieve to drain.

Cooking Directions

1. Follow the cooking directions for the classic Nigerian Jollof Rice till Step 3.
2. When the water is almost dry, add the diced carrots, cover the pot and continue cooking.
3. When the water is completely dry, turn off the heat. Add the diced green pepper and stir the rice with a wooden spoon.

Why can't we add the green pepper when we added the carrots? This is because green pepper is a soft vegetable so even the slightest heat is enough to get it done. If added at the same time as the carrots (which are harder) they will become dull and unappetizing by the time the water is completely dry. So to keep the green pepper green and looking fresh, we need to add them when we have turned off the heat.
Do you see the change in your Jollof Rice? This we achieved by adding just 2 vegetables. Isn't it interesting?