Acarajé

Bahia's black-eyed bean fritter, deep-fried in dendê and split open to take dried shrimp, vatapá and a fierce pepper sauce

Origin: Salvador & Bahia, Brazil

From the journey of Oil Palm.

Acarajé is a West African dish that crossed the Atlantic and stayed intact. It is recognisably the same object as Nigerian and Beninese àkàrà: skinned black-eyed beans ground to a paste, whipped until aerated, and deep-fried. The Yoruba name survives almost unchanged, from àkàrà jẹ́, to eat àkàrà. What changed on the Brazilian side is the frying medium and the filling. In Bahia it is fried in dendê, red palm oil, and split open like a pitta to be loaded with vatapá, caruru, dried shrimp, and pepper sauce. It is a religious object before it is a snack. Acarajé is the food of Iansã, the orixá of wind and storms, in Candomblé, and dendê is itself sacred in the religion. The women who sell it, the baianas de acarajé, work in white lace and beads that are the dress of the terreiro rather than a costume for tourists, and the occupation was formally registered as Brazilian intangible cultural heritage by IPHAN in 2005. The whipping is the technique that separates a good acarajé from a heavy one, and it is done by hand with a wooden spoon in the traditional method. Beating air into the bean paste is what makes the fritter puff and go hollow rather than dense, and Bahian sellers judge one another on it. Fifteen minutes of hard beating is normal. Frying in dendê is not interchangeable with frying in anything else. The oil colours the crust deep orange and contributes a distinct savoury smell that is half the dish, which is why an acarajé fried in vegetable oil is regarded in Salvador as a different and lesser thing.

Ingredients

Fritters

500 g dried black-eyed beans, soaked overnight
1 onion, roughly chopped
1.5 tsp salt
1 litre red palm oil (dendê), for deep frying

To fill

150 g dried shrimp
1 quantity of vatapá (see separate recipe)

Pepper sauce

1 onion, finely chopped
4 malagueta chillies, finely chopped
3 tbsp red palm oil
1 lime, juiced

Method

Skin the soaked beans. Rub handfuls firmly between your palms, then cover with water and pour off the floating skins. Repeat until the beans are clean and pale. This takes fifteen minutes and cannot be skipped: the skins make a grey, heavy fritter.
Blend the skinned beans with the roughly chopped onion and the salt to a thick, smooth paste, adding as little water as possible. It should be stiff enough to hold its shape on a spoon.
Now beat it. Transfer to a bowl and work the paste hard with a wooden spoon for a full ten to fifteen minutes, lifting and slapping it back down. It will lighten in colour, increase noticeably in volume, and become visibly aerated. This is what makes the fritter hollow.
Test it: drop a teaspoon of paste into a glass of water. If it floats, it is ready. If it sinks, keep beating.
Make the pepper sauce by mixing the chopped onion, chillies, palm oil, and lime juice with a pinch of salt. Set aside.
Heat the dendê in a deep pan to 175°C. It will smell strong; that is normal and is the point.
Shape the fritters with two wet spoons into rough ovals, or scoop with a wet hand in the Bahian way, and slide them into the oil. Fry in batches for four to five minutes, turning once, until deep orange and puffed.
Drain briefly. Split each fritter down one side without cutting through, and fill with vatapá, dried shrimp, and a spoonful of pepper sauce. Eat immediately and expect it to be messy.

Notes

The float test is the only reliable check on the beating, and under-beaten paste gives a dense fritter that no amount of good frying will rescue. Dendê has a low smoke point and a strong flavour, and both are intended; keep the oil at 175°C rather than hotter. The frying oil can be strained and reused two or three times for acarajé specifically. For abará, the steamed sibling, wrap the same paste in banana leaves and steam for forty minutes instead of frying.

The Gastrographer

Name: Acarajé
Prep time: 40 min
Cook time: 25 min
Total time: 2 h
Yield: 6
Cuisine: Brazil
Ingredients: 500 g dried black-eyed beans, soaked overnight; 1 onion, roughly chopped; 1.5 tsp salt; 1 litre red palm oil (dendê), for deep frying; 150 g dried shrimp; 1 quantity of vatapá (see separate recipe); 1 onion, finely chopped; 4 malagueta chillies, finely chopped; 3 tbsp red palm oil; 1 lime, juiced

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Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control