Fish and Vegetarian Bean Pies(Creating Nostalgia)

IMG_1046

I grew up in a close knit neighborhood. My dad worked for NNPC as a Petrochemical Engineer. As a result of his job, he was given a house in the housing estate where I was pretty much born and raised. In that estate there was a school, a day care, a club house which had pools in which I never swam. There was also a hospital. I attended the primary school which was down my street. When I got a little older my mom started giving me lunch money. It was not something she did on a daily basis, but when she did, I always looked forward to break time. At school, we had one long and one short break in between classes. The short break was about 15 minutes and the long break was about 30 minutes. During the long breaks,  I would spend my little snack money on bean and fish pies along with some contraption made with food coloring and sugar as a drink. These pies were fried and had either fish or mashed beans as fillings. Sometimes, I would even save my sack money until school was closed to go buy some of these pies for the road. Those pies made my childhood quite enjoyable :). There is no way of me writing about my childhood without including Chinagozie’s mom’s pies 🙂

IMG_1048

IMG_1061 (2)

Recently, I had a craving for fish pies and I later made not only the fish pies, but some bean pies too. It was absolute nostalgia. It took me back to primary school; walking home, sweating and not a care in the world because I was munching on sweet fish and bean pies.

Before I made my pies, I had discussed it with my friend Chinelo and she made her fish pie using fish and cream cheese. I did the same once and I liked the tartness of the pies. You may want to try adding a little cream cheese to your fish mixture; as this recipe is just the basic and only with a small twist.

The fun thing about these pies is that they are fit fam friendly if you bake them and alternatively you could use my meat pie dough recipe if you want to go in the direction of baking.

If you ever went to NNPC primary school, and had Chinagozie’s mom’s pies, you would understand the “epicness” of this recipe 🙂

Here. Make some pies 🙂

Fish IMG_1053

IMG_1054 (2)

5.0 from 1 reviews
Fish and Vegetarian Bean Pies(Creating Nostalgia)
 
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
 
Author:
Serves: 12
Ingredients
for dough
  • 3 cups of flour
  • ½ a stick of butter(1/4 cup or 4tbsps)(use 1½ sticks if baking)
  • 1 level tsp yeast (or baking powder if baking)
  • ½ tsp salt
  • A pinch of sugar
  • a pinch of nut meg
  • ½ tsp garlic powder(optional)
  • ½ tsp ginger powder
  • ½ tsp paprika(optional)
  • Water to seal
  • Egg for the egg wash if baking
  • 1cup of luke warm water (or cold water if using baking powder)
  • Oil for frying
for fish filling
  • 1 small can of mackerel in tomato sauce or 2 cans of sardines
  • Half of a small onion
  • 1small habanero (atarodo)
  • 1 small garlic clove
  • A knob or 1tbsp of butter
  • Salt or bouillon to taste
for vegan filling
  • ½ cup of cooked beans
  • ½ a small onion
  • 2 tsps crayfish
  • 1plum tomato
  • 1 habanero (ata rodo)
  • 2tbsps butter
  • Salt or bouillon to taste
  • (Alternatively you could use Nigerian stew)
Instructions
To prepare the dough, mix all the dry ingredients except for the yeast. Pour the yeast into the water and wait for about 10minutes or until frothy. Gradually pour the water into the dry ingredients and mix gently until you get a medium soft, stretchy dough. (Add more water of hard and more flour if too soft) Cover the dough tightly and place in a warm place for about an hour. After which the dough should rise a little. (skip this step if using baking powder. Simply let the dough rest in the refrigerator while you prepare the filling)
To prepare the fish filling
  1. Heat up the butter, dice in the onion, add the garlic and stir to release the flavor. Drain some of the tomato juice from the fish and add the fish into the pot along with the ata-rodo. Check for seasonings and reduce the heat until the fish is well combined with the butter, onion and garlic. Remove from the heat and set aside
For the bean filling
  1. Heat the butter, add the crayfish. Chop in the onion, tomatoes and ata rodo.
  2. Sauté for about a minute; then add the beans. Stir and mash the beans while combining with the ingredients, check for seasoning; then take off the heat
roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface. Cut out whatever shape you prefer, spoon in the filling in increments of teaspoonfuls. Brush water on the edges of the dough; then seal using a fork or your fingers to press down the edges. Do this until all the dough is used up.
  1. If frying, heat up the oil to 350 degrees and fry on medium heat until golden brown and cooked through. If baking, whisk the egg and brush a little on each pie; then bake in a 350 preheated oven. Serve with pepper sauce or eat as is.

 

7 comments

  1. Hadassah says:

    Hi, I attended NNPC too. I broke into a smile as I read your intro. it brought back memories, pleasant memories. I’ll share this recipe on my site, I remember getting beans pie outside small gate at the close of school.

Leave a Reply

Rate this recipe:  

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.