Deep fried bean cake (Akara)
Akara is a very popular snack in Nigeria taken during breakfast. It is eaten with bread, and pap. It is highly rich in protein because it is made from beans. It is usually sold at the road side. It is one of the best breakfast meal eaten in Nigeria. I can remember when I was so much younger, I always felt happy when our breakfast for that day is akara and anything, either bread or pap.These delicious protein-packed fritters are light, making them ideal for breakfast or throughout the day as a snack. Most people use peeled brown beans, ground and blended with onions and spices, and fry in vegetable oil. They taste amazing when eaten with bread.
Here are the receipe
Ingredients you need for Akara
You need only 5 ingredients to make Akara:
1 cup of Beans (black-eyed or brown beans)
2 habanero peppers (also chilli peppers)
1 medium onion
Salt to taste
Vegetable Oil for frying
Tools you will need:
Blender
Mortar and Pestle
Soak the beans in warm water for 1 hour. This is the longest portion of the process and is very easy, because it requires no effort. 🙂
When You start to see some of the skins of the beans float to the top after, it’s soaked!After soaking (the pods should be swollen) ,take about 1 cup of the beans, pour into a blender and add 4 cups of water. The key to peeling in the blender is to add lots of water.
and then run the blender at the lowest speed possible for just a few seconds at a time.
Repeat till you have run all the beans through the blender once.
4.Rinse the beans several times and drain to remove the beans skins. You might have some stubborn ones which didn’t peel and you can just rub those through your fingers to peel. Peeling the 2 cups took about 12 minutes
blend with the rest of the ingredients: bell pepper, habaneros, onion, salt and bouillon seasoning and about 1 cup of water.
Heat up the oil.
Use a large spoon, or a 1/3 measuring cup to scoop the paste into the oil once hot.
8.Drain on paper towel and serve hot.
When done, I usually eat mine with pap.