The perfect homemade Akara recipe from scratch - Ndudu by Fafa.

Hello again and welcome to Ndudu Bayi Fafa. Hello again. Thank you again for joining me for another exciting episode. My name is Fafa Gilbert and I am the chef behind Ndudu Bayi Fafa. Welcome to my Creative African Cooking channel. And if this is your first time of actually watching me, thank you again for tuning in. And do not forget to click that subscribe button now. Now today on the menu, I'm actually making this classic Ghanian, also popular in Nigeria and bean fritters known as Akara in Nigeria and as Kose in Ghana. I hope you do enjoy this episode and please do not forget to click that subscribe button now. And also do not forget to share the recipe and try the recipe and leave some comments for me. Show me some love. Now let's start cooking. So here are the list of ingredients that we will need for this classic recipe. If you didn't know any better, the most challenging part of this recipe was actually peeling the skin off the beans. Can you believe I used to like peel it individually after I soaked it overnight? Anyway, now there's a quicker process. And of course, I've actually soaked the beans overnight and washed it. And all I'm actually just doing now is rubbing the beans in between my palm. This actually just gently peels the beans, the skin off the beans easily. You can also use like a food processor and blitz it just roughly. And yet again, follow this process and it works. But this is the quickest way I find. I repeated this process, I'd say at least about four to five times. And yes, I'd actually just peel the skin off the beans. So each time I rub it, I actually fill it with water. And then just strain it because the skin would actually settle at the top. And I just repeated the same process over and over again until that was done. This did not take more than 10 minutes to actually do. So once you've peeled the skin off the black eyed beans, you're now ready to start your recipe. So now that I've got my hair out of the way, look at all my mama Africa. Now let's start cooking. Now what I do have here, I've got the peeled beans, as you saw me do that earlier. And I've got some red chilies. I've got some habanero chili, which is quite a small one. And I've just added about four Thai red chilies. But you know, you can reduce the amount of chilies that you want in there. And I've got two medium sized onions that I've actually quartered. I'm going to be blending all of this together. Now I've got that in my blender. And I'm just going to add about 16 milliliters of water. That's more than enough. And that's just going to allow this to blend. I'm purifying it into beautiful smooth paste. You don't want it to be too watery because if not, you know, the alcohol would absorb the oil and it's just not nice. You don't want it too firm either, even though I just like to use it. So it's important you get the right texture. So I'm going to do that now. As you can see, I've got that perfect consistency. It is thick, but it's fluffy. And look at that. It's almost like a mousse. That's just going to be gorgeous. Now I do not like waste, so I need to scrape this. This is where my spatula comes into action. Look at all these skewers I have to go through. Right, so here we have it. That's just beautiful. Now I am going to divide this mixture in two. Reason is, it's the same sort of process that you use for Momoy. So I will be making another recipe and I will show you how to make Momoy, but with my own twist. Okay, so let's divide this in two. Okay, that one's too big. Momoy just needed a little bit. Okay, so here we have this. And now I'm just going to chop some onions thinly and just add it to my mixture. You notice I haven't added salt yet. Now, salt is the last thing that I'll add just when I'm about to fry. Because the salt also gives it that crunchiness and I don't want it to lose that. So yes, I've got my onions in. And then I need some colour, as you can tell. Life without colour, it's boring, you know. It's like, life ain't colourful. And again, that depicts, you know, my heritage and we love colours and happiness and anything that predicts sunshine, you know, I'm up for it. This is a perfect vegan dish, actually. Usually, you can actually add some shrimp stock or just like your normal shrimp. But I'm omitting this because I don't like it with it. I just like it a spicy but delicate and crunchy and that's just about it. I don't want that umami taste. I don't want it to have a depth. I think that when you add it, it actually loses a little bit. But I want to taste the beans. I want to taste the onions. I want that chilli. I want the simplicity to come out. Oh god, the onions. I'm crying almost now. So yes, so mix this beauty. And see, oh, I am still crying. Oh, I used organic onions and they're quite sharp. Oh, no. Trust. At this stage, add your salt and mix everything together till it's well combined. Now, place your frying pan on a medium heat and add your preferred oil to the frying pan. Heat your oil up for about two to three minutes and then let's start frying. The secret to actually frying the perfect takara is to the quantity that you actually scoop into the oil. Please ensure you scoop no more than a tablespoon and a half of the bean paste into the oil because this would allow an even cook. If you're actually scooping a larger amount, what's going to happen is you're going to have a crunchy outer layer that's going to be uncooked in the middle. And trust me, that's not a pleasant thing to bite into raw beans. No, no, no, no. So just scoop this medium size amount into your oil and then just fry gently. Now, whilst frying, you do not want to reduce the heat because that would mean that the bean fritters would absorb the oil. Also a big no, no. So it should be on your medium heat, which is just a constant heat. Do not lower your heat at all. Do not make it too high because then it's going to burn. So that medium heat from the word go, it's imperative. And you keep that temperature all the way through. So for an all round crunchiness and an even cook, as well as that beautiful golden brown colour that akara is actually known for, kose is known for, you need to consistently turn your akara in the oil. Because that's the only way that you can ensure that it's evenly cooked. Now, once this is done, it shouldn't take more than about five minutes to achieve that beautiful colour and crunch. Your akara is ready. And I think I should do it again. Should I? Yeah, maybe. Yeah. This is not any other food. This is didu. Look at that beauty. Now, I hope you've actually enjoyed this video. You've enjoyed the recipe and you are inspired to try it. If so, please do not hesitate to subscribe. Show me some love. Look, it's in Dudubai Fafa. Where's the Hawa Zakoko now? Find the Hawa Zakoko recipe on my blog in dudubaifafa.blogspot.com. You can also watch it as a previous video on my YouTube channel, which will be aptly named Hawa Zakoko recipe. I hope you've enjoyed this recipe. And if you have, please do not forget to subscribe. Show me some love. I think I keep saying this because I do need your love. Find more inspiring recipes on my new blog, fafagilbert.com. Do not forget to subscribe as well. And also, I'm on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter as in dudubaifafa. Thank you again. Until next time, big kisses and hugs.