• Cooking time: 50 minutes
• Portion: 4 persons

Ingredients:

• Two habanero peppers (also chilli peppers)
• One cup of beans (black-eyed or brown beans)
• One medium onion salt to taste vegetable oil for frying

Getting over a painful experience is much like crossing monkey bars. You have to let go at some point to move forward.

– C.S. Lewis

Energy value

• calories 180kcal
• proteins 120g
• fats 4.2g
• carbohydrates 11.5g

Process before frying:

• Remove the beans’ coat.
• You mustn’t let salt come in contact with the beans you will use in making Akara until you are ready to fry it.
• Salt is believed to destroy the leavening property of beans.
• This is what prevents the spattering of the beans batter during frying.
• Soak the beans in water for Two hours to make it soft enough for your blender.
• If you will grind it using heavy-duty grinders in Nigerian markets, it will not be necessary to soak the beans for extended periods.
• Cut the pepper and onions into desirable sizes.

Preparation

1. First, grind the beans with your blender making sure you add as little water as possible.
2. The water should be just enough to move the blades of your blender.
3. Do not add any other ingredient when grinding the beans.
4. It is believed that other ingredients if added too early, reduce the ability of the ground beans particles to stick together.
5. Set some vegetable oil on the cooker to heat up.
6. The oil should be at least three inches deep.
7. Put some of the ground beans into a mortar.
8. This should be the quantity you can fry in one go.
9. Stir the beans puree with the pestle in a continuous circular motion.
10. You need to apply some pressure so that you can energize the particles of the bean puree. This stirring technique releases the gas that will act as a leavening agent to the bean’s particles, making them rise and somehow stick together.
11. This will be like the yeast making the dough rise in Puff Puff or what folding does to cake batter.
12. Keep stirring till the ground beans appear whiter and you can perceive their peculiar aroma. Add some water until you get the consistency shown in the video below.
13. Check to make sure the oil is hot.
14. The oil should be hot enough to sizzle but not too hot. If too hot, the Akara will spatter as soon as the bean batter hits the oil.
15. Once the oil is hot, add the onions and pepper to the beans puree in the mortar.
16. Stir well.
17. Add salt to your taste and stir again.
18. Salt should always be added just before scooping the bean mixture into the oil. If salt stays in the mixture for extended periods, it will destroy the leavening property of the beans.
19. This property is what makes the Akara float in the oil and prevents splatter during frying.
20. To fry the Akara, scoop the mixture with a tablespoon and slowly pour this into the oil. Dipping the spoon, a little bit into the oil helps reduce spatter.
21. Fry the underside till brown and flip to fry the top side too.
22. When the Akara balls are brown all over, remove them and place them in a sieve lined with paper towels.