Pepper rehydration: Soak the dried pepper in hot water and set aside.
Place a saucepan or a pot over low medium heat. Pour oil into the pot (you might need to add more oil) and cover, it will take time, about 10-15 minutes or thereabouts, don't be tempted to increase the heat. While the oil is bleaching blend the dried pepper (roughly). Make sure your kitchen is well ventilated. After the oil has been bleached allow it to cool down so you need to turn off the heat or reduce it to low. After cooling down hear the oil and add chopped onion.
And fry until it's brown and not burn.
Add the blended pepper, red pepper flakes/dried pepper and fry Let it fry for about 30-35 minutes while frying the stew make sure you stir so it doesn't burn. Fry until the oil floats.
Add the ground crayfish, dried fish, groundfish (if you're using), grilled fish/dried fish (crumbled), and continue to fry. If you notice the pepper mixture soaks the oil you can bleach some oil on the side and add more. You need a lot of oil to fry this stew.
Season with salt and seasoning powder/cube and continue to fry stir as you fry you don't want it to burn at all. You'll notice the pepper mixture color changes to dark and darker. Check the seasoning and readjust if necessary.
Serve
Enjoy with your favorite side. Agege bread is a side, fry or boil yam is yummy with it too.
Note: I only used the dried pepper and spice is mild, you can mix dried bell pepper (dried tatashe) with dried pepper (shonbo). You can double the recipe if you want more quantity.
If you're using dried fish, soak it in hot water and salt to clean and make it softer before cooking in the stew.
Enjoy Ewa Agonyin by itself or eat with Agege Bread (Nigerian Agege Bread)