Ingredients
Fritters
- 500 gdried black-eyed peas
- 1medium onion, roughly chopped
- 1½ tsp salt
- 1 litredendê (red palm) oil, for deep frying
To fill
- 300 gvatapá — bread, dried shrimp, coconut milk and dendê, blended to a paste
- 200 gcaruru — okra stewed with dried shrimp and cashew
- 12whole dried shrimp
- chopped tomato and onion salad
- pepper sauce, to taste
Directions
- Soak the black-eyed peas in plenty of cold water for 4 hours. Rub them vigorously between your palms in the water and the skins will float off; pour them away and repeat until the peas are pale and naked. This step decides the colour and lightness of the fritter.
- Drain well and grind the peas with the onion to a stiff, smooth paste, using as little water as you can — a food processor run in bursts is closest to the traditional stone.
- Beat the paste hard with a wooden spoon for a full 5 minutes, lifting and slapping it back down, until it lightens in colour and a teaspoonful floats in a glass of water. Beat in the salt at the end.
- Heat the dendê to 180°C (350°F) in a deep pan. It should smell nutty, not acrid; overheated dendê turns bitter and loses its red colour.
- Shape ovals with two wet spoons and slide them in, four at a time. Fry 5–6 minutes, turning once, until deep russet and firm. Drain on a rack, not paper.
- Split each hot fritter along one side without cutting through, and fill with vatapá, caruru, a whole dried shrimp and a spoonful of tomato salad. Add pepper sauce at the table.
Technique
- Dendê is not interchangeable with other oils. Its colour, smell and flavour are the dish; frying in a neutral oil makes a black-eyed pea fritter, not acarajé.
- The float test in step 3 is the only reliable check that enough air has been beaten in. A paste that sinks will fry dense and heavy.
- Fry in small batches. Crowding drops the oil temperature and the fritters absorb it.
Substitutions
- Frozen peeled black-eyed peas save the soaking and skinning, at some cost to texture.
- Where dendê is unavailable, the fritter is still worth making in groundnut oil — but call it abará or akara rather than acarajé.
Variations
- Abará, the same batter steamed in banana leaf instead of fried.
- A vegetarian filling of vatapá made without shrimp, increasingly common in Salvador.
History
Black-eyed pea fritter fried in dendê and offered to the orixa Iansa; Brazil listed the craft of the baianas de acaraje as heritage in 2005.
Frequently asked questions
What is Acarajé?
Acarajé is a street food from Brazil: bahian black-eyed-pea fritter fried in dendê, stuffed with vatapá, shrimp. Black-eyed pea fritter fried in dendê and offered to the orixa Iansa; Brazil listed the craft of the baianas de acaraje as heritage in 2005.
How long does Acarajé take to make?
Acarajé takes 30 min plus 4 hr soaking of preparation and 25 min of cooking. The recipe makes 12 fritters. It is rated hard to make.
What can I substitute in Acarajé?
Yes, within limits. Frozen peeled black-eyed peas save the soaking and skinning, at some cost to texture. Where dendê is unavailable, the fritter is still worth making in groundnut oil — but call it abará or akara rather than acarajé.
What is the most important thing to get right in Acarajé?
The float test in step 3 is the only reliable check that enough air has been beaten in. A paste that sinks will fry dense and heavy.
