Welcome to another episode of Creative Sunday with George Dee, this Hive Learner's Community initiative comes up every Sunday and it is all about creativity plus fun.
My entry for today's challenge has to do with food just like the past Sundays, the meal is not special because it is a regular food for Nigerians but I tried preparing it differently.
I will prefer to call it a snack because many people take fried yam and beans cake as snacks, this is a meal people rarely prepare at home but you can find it somewhere around a very busy bus stop in Lagos, especially at night.
The stress of making bean cake is somehow plenty and it discourages people from preparing it themselves at him. I enjoy doing it though and if you ask me why, I will tell you that the stress is worth it.
I take food hygiene as a very important thing, roadside food isn't guaranteed to be hygienic so it's best to make your meals by yourself, and when you can't, be sure of what kind of person makes the food you purchase.
Beans cake and fried yam might be common snacks but what you are about to learn in this article is not common.
I use to be a very helpful person even to strangers and that lead to my first shot at this snack. I worked in a factory at Isolo in 2012 and I usually don't go home until weekends.
Every night I do eat beans cake and yam, I have a place I do buy it close to the factory. I became a regular customer and whenever the woman has too much work, I usually assist her at night and we became close.
On a particular night, I tried frying yam and blended beans together after sales was over. It came out perfectly and the woman did more of it but we ate it since it was closing hour. She did it the next day and people loved it because it gave them a combo of yam and beans cake instead of buying it differently.
I have done it a few times like that but I improved on it to make it perfect for the Creative Sunday initiative.
I don't know the best name for this so I would just call it Beans cake with yam filling.
The name doesn't sound great but the meal does.
What are the ingredients?
The ingredient for this snack is not much so it makes this meal very economical.
Yam
Beans
Pepper
Smoked fish
Seasoning & Salt
Groundnut oil.
Let's get to the preparation...
Yam:
- Peel the back and cut the yam into very small pieces. It has to be small because it won't get a longer frying time and the smaller it is, the quicker it gets fried.
- Ensure you wash them in water.
Beans:
- Pick the beans first to avoid the possibility of blending them with stones.
- Remove the back of the beans by washing and grieving the back of beans.
- Soak the washed beans in water for 15 minutes to make them soft before blending.
- Add your pepper and onions.
- You can blend the beans with a blender, don't add too much water else it will get watery and make frying difficult.
The main process.
- Add the shredded fish, onions, yam, seasoning, and salt into the blended beans, stir and let them blend into the beans well.
- Heat your oil under low heat to avoid it getting too hot for frying, the mixture will look good from the outside but the filling won't be ready for consumption if the oil is too hot.
- When the oil is hot, put the mixture bit by bit into the hot oil.
- Allow it to fry, turn the mixture and let it fry under low heat. Let it fry until it turns brown, and remove it from the hot oil. Put them in a basket so that the oil will be drained, a minute or two is okay and your snack is ready for consumption.
This snack can be served at any time of the day, it is quick and easy to prepare.
The nutritional value is superb, you have bean which is the cheapest source of protein for me and yam which is carbohydrate. The fish gives you protein as well, the snack has vitamins and nutrients locked in it so just relax and enjoy.
It is best served with a chill glass of juice, see you again next week.