Steamed cowpea with melon (Yoruba – Jόgí)

Ingredient	Handy measure
Cowpea	2 cups
Melon seed (egusi) Note: may be roasted or unroasted	1 cup
Chunky ingredients ( e. g. fish, corn beef, boiled egg, fresh crayfish, chopped liver, chooped ham e.t.c.)	As desired
Onion	1 big size
Dry red pepper optional	1 table spoon/to taste
Fresh red pepper	4 small size/ to taste
Salt	to taste

• Hulled the cowpea
• Mix with the melon, onion and fresh pepper and make to paste (check previous posts)
• Add the chunky ingredient(s), salt and dry pepper if used
• Whip adding hot water gradually to it
• Whip till mixture coats the back of a spoon thickly
• Wrap in leaves, cooking cellophanes or put in small baking tins about ¾ full
• Cook in steamer for about 55mins.

It can be served with ogi, eko, rice, soaked gaari, bread and salad for light lunch

Hulled cowpea

• Soak in water for about 10 minutes
• Drain the water, and rub handfuls of it firmly between the palms several times (It must be done in quick successions)
• Fill the bowl with water and mix the cowpea with it
• Pour off the floating hulls and then repeat steps 1-4 until almost all the hulls are removed
• Remove the remaining hulls individually.
• The dehulled beans can be dried before grinding if it is to be kept in this form
• It can also be grinded in this form to make the paste

Cowpea

We will be talking about cowpea (beans) for some times now. The beans type am referring to here is Vigna unguiculate though many other legumes are used in cooking though out Nigeria. There are various varieties of this cowpea commonly referred to as beans in Nigerian market. All varieties are similar in nutritive value but local preferences exist. The common ones are either whitish or brownish in colour. Cowpeas are high in soluble carbohydrate and protein. They also contain some minerals but are low in oil. In Nigeria, cowpea is a valuable source of protein because of short supply of animal protein.

For storage sake, it is better to buy the ones that are well dried and free from insects , insect holes and are not discoloured. They should be picked to remove foreign materials and debris. A proven way of keeping cowpeas in bulk is by keeping them in an air tight container with some fingers of dry pepper preferably ‘ata wewe’ in a cool dry place.

Cowpea can be cooked as a whole or as processed paste.