BN Cuisine with Dooney’s Kitchen: A Tale of Two Dishes – Abari & Epiti

The journey to making these dishes was hilarious at best. I wanted my next post on Bella Naija to be something quite unusual but still undoubtedly Nigerian. I looked through my list of recipes not yet published or cooked and ticked a few options. Going further down the list, Abari stood out, and then Epiti, which gave me the idea to write a post about the tales of 2 uncommon Nigerian steamed dishes. Oh dear, I should just have gone with my original idea to cook Ofe Akwuko using a recipe a reader Mrs Eze sent to me. Going to Peckham to buy Ugba (which was the reason I didn’t cook it), would have been way less stressful than what I went through. Refusing to give up, I tried different combinations till I found something that worked. If you live outside Nigeria and cooking these two steamed dishes has always been a pain for you, you will want to read this. If you haven’t eaten these dishes before, especially now that corn would soon be in season, you want to pay close attention.

What is Abari? It is simply Savoury Steamed Corn. Think Moin Moin, but with corn instead of beans. Abari is the Ekiti name for it. Abari goes even further, because garden eggs are added. In other cultures it is called Ukpo Oka, Sapala, Oka Ekusu or Ekoki, Igba Ngwu Oka. I would like to know what you call it in your culture. The Igbos and The Efiks add vegetables to it like scent leaf or nchawu, ugu leaves, anyara leaves and sometimes Uziza. I was initially going for the Ekiti-Igbo/Ekiti fusion but with the frustrations I faced while making it, I totally forgot about my idea and churned out the pure Ekiti version. You can update my recipe and do a multi cultural fusion dish. Please remember to send me your pictures or drop comments on the blog when you do.

I don’t know how I thought it would be a good idea to blend dry corn to make Abari. While blending it, with my blender groaning a little, I realised it was not going to work and that is how I became an accidental ogi maker. If you would like to know how to make your own Ogi in 5 days, go to my blog. Refusing to be deterred by the dried corn, I used fresh corn sold in supermarkets which I scraped off the cob. Another disaster. You would have thought I was steaming a stone and waiting for it to soften. The abari spent ages in the oven and refused to solidify. It tasted pretty amazing though, but not firm enough to be plated beautifully. Trial 3, I opened cans of sweetcorn, repeated the process. A little better than the last trial but it fell slightly apart and didn’t look to great. I was close to pulling my hair out at this point. I am sure many of you who have tried this dish must be nodding your heads and remembering your own experience. I left the kitchen in a right old state and when to cool off on the sofa. Minutes after, it hit me. I needed to thicken it with something. In my frustrated state, all sorts of things came to mind including Garri. I settled for flour. Just before I placed the mixture in the oven, it occurred to me to try thickening it corn flour too, which led me to making another batch thickened with corn flour just so I could compare. Honestly, no difference. Whichever you have in your pantry, both would work. What took ages in the last three trials, was cut down to a mere 15 minutes in the oven. Did I mention that I faced the same problem while making Epiti too. I know I will not appreciate my electricity bill when I see it next month.

Before fresh corn comes into season, you can use any kind of corn you can find. Frozen, sweetcorn, mini corn on the cob. The key is to thicken it.

You Will Need

Corn – fresh, frozen, sweetcorn
Tatashe – red bell pepper
Chopped red onions
Crayfish
Garden eggs – substitute with aubergines
Ata rodo – scotch bonnet/habanero pepper
Salt
Seasoning cubes
Dry pepper – cayenne pepper or paprika
Shredded smoked fish
Plain flour or corn flour – to thicken
Palm oil – you can substitute with vegetable oil
Banana leaves or heat proof containers

How To

Rinse and quarter the garden eggs. If you are turning your nose up at garden eggs, believe me, I used to until I tried something else apart from boiling. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: the solution to your garden egg pet peeve is to grill it. Place the quartered garden eggs on an oven tray, season with salt, a sprinkling of crushed seasoning cubes, dry pepper and a little topping of oil. Whack in the oven for 5 – 7 minutes.

The garden egg ‘chips’ would come out smelling and tasting great. Only a slight tinge of bitterness would be left, you may not even notice.

While the garden eggs are grilling, blend the sweetcorn with tatashe and rodo till a smooth paste.

Pour into a bowl and add chopped red onions, crayfish, shredded smoked fish, the grilled garden eggs fresh from the oven, salt, chopped red onion (optional), seasoning cubes and palm oil.Be careful with the palm oil though, otherwise you will end up with a sharp orange abari, and not the pleasing moin moin type colour. Add palm oil in tablespoon increments. You can also choose to use vegetable oil, or even mix both.

Combine all gently, taste for salt and seasoning and readjust accordingly. With the crayfish, smoked fish and grilled garden eggs already with some salt content, you want to be careful about the amount of salt you add.

Stir in corn flour or plain flour. I added fresh pepper at this point only because I forgot to blend it with the corn.

This step is important to give the paste some body, otherwise you will find yourself steaming forever, running up a gas or electricity bill and the abari would not come together and solidify. I learnt my lesson the first time. You only need to thicken with about a tablespoon or 2 of flour. it doesn’t affect the taste but saves you the frustration.

If you have the local banana leaves, fold into the traditional shape, pour in the corn paste and steam in a pot. If you are using oven proof containers, simply line with a little oil, pour in the paste and whack in the oven.

Likewise you can bake in Muffin cups

Yes, you can bake abari in the oven, so with moin moin. Remember to fill a baking tray with water, and place in the oven. This is to keep the oven moist and steamy, thereby recreating the steaming process in a pot.

Bake in the oven at 180 degrees centigrade (Farenheit conversion) for roughly 15 minutes. When it comes out of the oven, it should still be soft, but not squidgy.

That’s your Abari done. Serve with Garri and cold water.

or go the full Corn Monty and serve with Pap.

If you want your Abari to come out this moist, remember to fill a baking pan with water and place in the oven. You should also cover with foil by the halfway mark.

Now to Epiti.

What is Epiti? I am not exactly sure which part of Yorubaland the name Epiti is local to. I welcome your suggestions. It is a close cousin to Abari, in that it is also made with corn, but corn and over ripe plantain. The combination of both gives a sweet steamed dish that is savoury at the same time. A very good play on your taste buds. Like with Abari, I also faced problems of steaming forever. It is even worse with Epiti because over ripe plantains have a very mushy texture. Luckily, thickening with flour also worked here. The recipe is basically same as that of Abari above (except garden eggs). The mixture of blended overripe plantain and corn is a blank canvas to which you can play around with it, adding as many ingredients as you wish. Some even add boiled eggs to it, sardines or corned beef.

The process is the same, except you blend the over ripe plantain with the corn. Over ripe plantain has quite a strong flavour, therefore add enough sweetcorn to match that flavour, otherwise all you would taste is the plantain. To half a plantain, I used two 165g cans of sweetcorn.

Blend the plantains and corn to a smooth pulp.

Add the peppers and onions (optional) and blend further

Add powdered crayfish, and tear in softened smoked fish

add Palm oil. About a cooking spoonful worth or more, depending on the volume you are working with

Stir in corn flour to give it more body, not necessarily to thicken it. The flour will help keep it together and firm up while in the oven.

Pour into ramekins, and place in a deep oven tray filled with water. Place in the oven and bake at 180 degrees (350 Fahrenheit) for 15 – 20 minutes.

When you take it out of the oven, it should feel soft to touch, and succumb to the pressure of your fingers, like Moin Moin

Sure does look like Moin Moin doesn’t it? As with Ebiripo, I decided to serve Epiti with a fried Palm Oil sauce.

We all know about Moin Moin, for some of us with links to Ijebu land, Ebiripo (steamed cocoyam) is another steamed savoury dish you will be familiar with. I am always looking to learn more about Nigerian food, so please share any more savoury steamed Nigerian dishes you know.

I hope I have inspired you to give these dishes a try. Expand your steamed Nigerian Savoury dishes repertoire. You can also share, which one you have been inspired to try first, or if you will do both. I am repeating it again, if you are not using proper fresh corn, with the leaves, hairs et al,don’t forget the flour.

Before I go, let’s talk about the Dooney’s Kitchen giveaway.

To celebrate 1 year of being a contributor on BellaNaija, I would like to thank you all for the support these past few months. I only become a food blogger in March 2013, and it already feels like so much longer. I am grateful for the experience and also thankful for the support. My contribution to BN cuisine truly shone a spotlight on my blog and the support from you Bella Naijarians has been immeasurable. My parents raised me to always give back as the hand that gives gathers. To show my appreciation, I would like to give away a food processor to one lucky BellaNaija reader who of course lives in Nigeria.

To make it more fair, as luck didn’t get me here but hard work, I would like this giveaway to mirror my ethics of practice. A bit of ‘work’ will be needed on your part. Don’t worry, not so much. To win this food processor, you have to answer two questions.

1. What was the first recipe I posted on Bella Naija and what date was it.

2. For this contest, I deconstructed Abari i.e. I took out all the other ingredients to make a sauce, whilst steaming the corn and corn flour on its own. I would like you to invent a name for this dish. Sorry, calling it Deconstructed Abari is not creative enough. Imagine if this was going to be a dish in your restaurant, what would you call it?

A winner will be selected from the correct answers and the most creative responses. The winner will be announced on Dooney’s Kitchen Facebook Page and the recipe for Deconstructed Abari (insert whatever name is selected) will be posted on my blog with credit for the name of the dish given to you.

To enter, please Like Dooney’s Kitchen on Facebook and Follow on Twitter or Instagram as your responses would have to be sent to me using those social media, just to verify you are who you say you are. If you don’t have any social media accounts, please subscribe to the blog and send me an email {the_experience(at)dooneyskitchen(dot) com} using the address you used to subscribe. The competition closes in a week from today. {4th April 2014}

Thank you and Good Luck.

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Dunni Obata is an IT Project Manager by day and a cook the rest of the time. She loves entertainment and one of her bad habits is feeding people. When she’s not cooking, she’s watching the Food Network. Dunni is very passionate about Nigerian food and believes it has a lot to offer globally. Visit her blog – www.dooneyskitchen.com