Hope everybody has welcomed 2013 with great fun. We too had fun and welcomed New Year with delicious home cooked meal and a bottle of champagne. I hope everybody’s dream gets fulfilled this year. It is custom in southern part of America to eat black eyed peas, pork and greens on the first day of New-year. Eating black eyed peas are supposed to bring Prosperity throughout the year and greens will brings money, and pork brings positive motion. Since I won’t eat pork, I skipped that part. I made blacked eyed peas fritters as tea time snack and spinach-rice for lunch. I was not fan of mustard greens so used spinach and it is well received green in my family. Last year too I made black eyed peas salad and I got my son in 2012.
There is another story behind this tradition, during the American civil war the Union troops, especially in areas targeted by General William Tecumseh Sherman, typically stripped the countryside of all stored food, crops, and livestock, and destroyed whatever they could not carry away. At that time, Northerners considered "field peas" (black eyed peas) and field cornsuitable only for animal fodder, and did not steal or destroy them.
I was eyeing on the black eyed pea’s fritters for a while, and on New Year day, I thought, why I don’t make it. You need to plan ahead for this recipe; it is not just as easy as making a salad or sundal. I have grown up with black eyed peas in curries, sweet dishes or sundal but never tried fritters with it.
These fritters are called akara in Nigeria and Sierra Leone, and akla or koosé in Ghana, Accara in Senegal. It also famous in rest of West Africa, as binch akara, bean balls, kosai, koose, kose, and kwasi. It is commonly prepared at home for breakfast or snacks, or as an appetizer or side dish. Usually these fritters are served with spicy pepper relish. They are also sold as fast-food by vendors on the street, in marketplaces, and at bus stations. The same recipe, with a very similar name, is also known in the Caribbean. In Brazil these fritters are called Acarajein the northeastern state of Bahia, especially in city of Salvador influenced by African cuisine. They are sold mainly by street vendors and tourist favorite one.
I was curious, because, in southern part India, we convert every lentil/beans into fritters, then how come we don’t use black eyed peas in our fritters list. I found that yes it is made into fritters in Andhra Pradesh. It is called Bobbarlu vadalu , alasandalu vada and Raayalseema specially, usually served with chicken gravy. However there they do not bother to remove the skin.
However I made fritters as Akara/Accra recipe. You need to soak the black eyed pea’s overnight and next morning there will be a tedious jobs waiting for you removing to the skin of each beans. I found this video of removing the skin is easy, She is just mashing the beans with pestle and washing in the running water. She repeats two three times until you removed the entire beans. I have seen somebody saying that you just need to agitate beans or rub in between fingers; however it is not easy for me.
Once you removed the skin of black eyed peas, grind them into a fine paste using 1 and ½ tablespoon of water. Don’t try to add any water to make soggy. Then add salt, Habanero chili peppers , chopped onion, garlic, ginger. I don’t have Habanero chili peppers, so used green chili pepper and cumin seeds as extra flavoring. I was able to make 30 small ping pong sized fritters, served with coconut chutney. My princess enjoyed it with her Ketchup. If you like deep fried fritters, then try this. It is really easy to put it together except for the part of removing the skin. This is going to stick around my kitchen for long time.
Here comes the recipe.
Day before you planned to make fritters soak the dried peas for overnight. Next morning using pestle mash beans and remove the skins of each beans. Skin will be floating easily, strain them using a mesh strainer.
Grind the skinless peas into a fine paste mix chopped onion, garlic, ginger, green chili and salt.
Heat oil to 375 F spoons or scoop a ping pong size of batter into oil, fry them for about 6-7 minutes or until it becomes golden brown, remove from the oil transfer to kitchen towel for excess oil removal.
Enjoy with any spicy relish, I served with coconut chutney and Ketchup
Print recipe from here
Black Eyed Peas Fritters/ Akara/Accara
Adapted from this recipeand this recipe
Prep Time 20 minutes + 8 hours of soaking time
Cook Time 45 minutes
Serves 30 ping pong sized fritters
Ingredients:
1 Cup Dried Black eyed peas
¾ Cup chopped onion
1 Green chili
1 tablespoon chopped ginger
2 cloves of chopped garlic
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
½ teaspoon of salt
11/2 tablespoon water
4 Cups Canola Oil
How I made:
Soak dried black eyed peas for overnight.
Next morning, using pestle mash the beans, then wash in the running water so that skin will
floats freely in water strain and remove the skins of beans using a mesh strainer or hand.
Grind the skinless black eyed peas in a grinder using 1 ½ tablespoon of water.
In a medium bowl, to the ground batter mix in chopped onion, garlic, ginger, green chili, salt and cumin seeds and set aside.
In a thick bottom pan heat oil to 375 F, add a drop of batter to check oil is ready, if it is ready, dough will comes up immediately. Then add ping-pong sized batter and fry for about 6-7 minutes or until they become golden brown color, flipping in between.
Using a slotted spoon, remove the fried fritters from oil and transfer to kitchen towel to remove excess oil.
Enjoy warm with spicy relish, I served with coconut chutney and Ketchup.
Variations:
- If you want to make traditional instead of green chili use Habanero peppers and skip cumin seeds
I am linking this delicious fritters to Favorite Recipes: Lentil/Legume/Beans Recipes hosted here
This is Swathi ( Dr. Ambujom Saraswathy Ph.D) from Zesty South Indian Kitchen who loves to explore cuisines from all over the world. Whenever possible I try to to give an Indian touch to several of the world cuisine, and has weakness for freshly baked bread. All the recipes you see here are created by me and approved after taste-test by my family.
Chef Mireille says
I love accras. In the Caribbean, we make them also but we add dried salted cod to the batter and I also like the Brazilian version which adds dried shrimp
Amy says
healthy fritters with black eyed bean....nice pictures..
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Julie says
Great fritters,perfect for winters..yummy!!
Alea Milham says
I love black eyed peas! I have never heard of making fritters with them before. What a delicious idea!
Kim Wilshaw says
hi swathi! i firstly want to congratulate you. when i read about why and how you started ur blog i was amazed and you make such lovely food! i found ur pics in foodgawker and its amazing. I too have a blog, its called feedingindianbaby.blogspot.com. all to do with feeding babies (mine are 1.5 and 3.5 years) and our culinary adventures. i look fwd to ur next entry!
Archana Potdar says
OO1 wow looks yum.
Divya Pramil says
Looks so perfect..Must be a good tea time snack 🙂 Nice clicks too!!
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Jay says
lipsmacking & drooolworthy..
Tasty Appetite
Saraswathi Tharagaram says
Very well done and neat presentation. Love your last click.
Vrinda says
Lovely fritters..my fav too,but wont work well with canned ones,looks perfect
DivyaGCP says
Love these delicious fritters.. Great snack for the evening..
Sanoli Ghosh says
Looks very delicious dear. Never made fritters with this bean..a must try recipe..
today's recipe:
http://sanolisrecipies.blogspot.in/2013/01/runner-beans-shim-bharta.html
Faseela Noushad says
delicious n yummy snack....
Kaveri Venkatesh says
Happy New Year to you Swathi...The fritters in the last pic tempts me to prepare these immediately...I love the way you try out recipes from across the world and bring it to us..
Kaveri Venkatesh says
Happy New Year to you Swathi...The last pic tempts me to make these fritters immediately. I simply love the way you try out recipes from around the world and bring it to us..
Navaneetham Krishnan says
Thats news for me that balck eyed peas is eaten on the few day of new year. And your fritters are fabulous. I wish I can also made snacks and bites at home but sad to say there's nobody to eat these at home.
Reshmi Mahesh says
Happy New Year dear..Fritters look super delicious..
cookingvarieties says
hi swathi, guess what- i have never eaten black eyed peas before and never knew that this akara is so popular in africa and part of south america-thanks for that info and the good tip on separating the pea skin.. your fritters look delicious, like a little spice too. have a great weekend.
Home Cooked Oriya Food says
Happy New Year! Lovely recipe...
Maha Gadde says
Simple and healthy 4 lunch as a snack.. Delicious.
Sravs says
Fritters looks YUM and delicious one !!
Reeni Pisano says
These crispy golden fritters look incredibly good Swathi! A tempting little snack. I could make them disappear too fast.
Veena Theagarajan says
healthy and new vada with whole dhal.. Loving it
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CakeWhiz says
i tend to use black peas in salads or chillis but this is a great way to make them too. plus, they look so nice and crispy on the outisde, soft on the inside! if i stick a toothpick in each fritter...it would make great appetizers too...right?
-abeer @ http://www.cakewhiz.com
Swathi Iyer says
Yes Abeer, they are great appetizers, I like your idea of sticking toothpick on it.
Shailaja Reddy says
Healthy n delicious fritters...
Suja Manoj says
Nice healthy recipe,adipoli dear,perfect with a cup of tea
Sandhya Ramakrishnan says
Awesome recipe! Never made this before and never thought one could remove the skin of the black eye peas. I am definitely going to make this. Thanks for a yummy recipe 🙂
Rebecca Subbiah says
now this is a great way to use black eyed peas yum
Uma says
looks so delicious. Last pic is too tempting.
Vineetha says
ithu kollao swathi..yumm yumm.
Happy new year dear !
divya says
beautiful click.. n presentation.. looks so yumm
CJ - Food Stories says
Very interesting recipe - Never heard of removing the skins of black eyed peas before ... Happy New Year!
Uma Ramanujam says
Suddenly they look like bonda for me. 🙂 Partly healthy bonda indeed.
Rani's gourmet says
wow love that texture..bookmarked this recipe.:)
Hema says
These fritters looks so tempting..
PT says
healthy n delicious fritters..
Sangeetha Priya says
So soft fritters, perfect for this weather, loved ur clicks 🙂
Priya says
I'll happily have a plate full of this crispy fritters topped with sweet chilly sauce rite now, love the way you separated their skins.
prathibha Garre says
feeling like grabbing them now for my tea...last pic is very good
Gauri says
Hey Wish you a Very Happy New Year (I may be wishing u again lol)
When the TV series Food Safari hosted Maeve O Mara was showing the African Food Safari I saw this dish on that show and have remembered since. Thank you for sharing this recipe in detail, have bookmarked it!
Lubna Karim says
Wow...so protein packed fritters.....love the texture....looks yum....
David says
Superb, a lot if effort but it seems well worth it.
Marus says
Delicius!.
Happy new year 2013 for you and your family.
Good day
Ramya Krishnamurthy says
yummy and tempting fritters.
Amrita Vishal says
Lovely fritters esp with the black eyed peas..very new for me.
Kalpana Sareesh says
they looks really awesome.. i hv some boiled ones at home let me try it today..
Vijayalakshmi Dharmaraj says
very yumm n inviting fritters akka...
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kausers kitchen says
looks delicious..yum.
Nivedhanams Sowmya says
looks so much like our vadai!!! bookmarking this one!!!
Sowmya
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Sadaf Afshan says
My mother in law spent nearly 3 decades in Nigeria........even now she uses black eyed peas very frequently in Indian recipes. For instance , she uses boiled and mashed black eyed peas to bind fish kebabs. Great idea to make fritters out of them.
Savitha Ganesan says
very healthy frittersmyMilused to prepare tis.
Nandini M says
Wow! Very tasty fritters! Yummy!
Arthy Suman says
Wow a new sub for vada...yummm
Asiya Omar says
Looks really yumm..