AKARA
Origin
Akara originated from Nigeria in general and mainly by the Yoruba's. Akara are Nubian in origin and the Yoruba people of Nigeria are said to be of Nubian origin and introduced this bean fritters to the rest of Africa and Arabia. both the Yoruba's, Igbos and Hausas people have been making and eating Akara for more than sixty years today. The Igbo's call it Akara and mainly have it with Akamu (pap) the Yoruba's call is Akara and usually have it with bread and the Hausas call it Kosai or also Akara and mainly have it with Koko which is pap. Akara can be taken as breakfast or snack and is consumed by all categories of people in Nigeria, both the rich and the poor. It is know as a very cheap way of having protein without spending a lot for meat and other source of protein. It is also a meal very suitable for vegetarians. It is also highly recommended during festivals and can be part of the variety snacks to choose from. It is also served in special occasions mostly where the consumption of meat is not required like during the Muslim fasting and many other cultural occasions. The Yoruba eat and give away Akara during their Odun Akara festival which is ever 16th of June.
What is Akara?
Akara is a small ball cakes made out of black-eyed peas. These peas first of all are socked into water for several hours, this makes the skin or coat soft and easy to pull off, they naked seeds are blended to smoothness that looks like porridge after grinding or blending, it can then be seasoned with ground dried shrimp, onion, paper and salt, shaped into balls and deep fried in palm oil, ground nut oil or even both mixed together. For a vegetarian or for a much easier and cheaper way, can be flavoured in pepper, onion and salt only before frying. With dried shrimp are more traditional and gives it an extremely strong flavour.
Other places you can find Akara.
Akara is also very famous in Ghana, it is called Koose and is also recognised by Ghanaians as breakfast.
Akara recipe was taken to Brazil by the slaves from the West African coast during the slave trade era, it became popular in the Bahia region. It is know as Acaraje. In Nigeria, Akara is sold on the road sides by women who shout out Akara je in Yoruba language, meaning 'come and eat Akara'. When the recipe travels to Brazil, the Brazilians took the name as Acaraje because that was whet the slave women who started selling Akara by the road side during the evenings called it. So that gave it the name Acaraje in Brazil. Brazilian have adopted it as a heritage culture Bahia. Today, Acaraji is sold in most parts of Brazil by mainly women in white Uniforms.
Akara all the way from West Africa and from Nigeria in particular, have circulated in other parts of the world, one of the most popular places apart from Brazil is America where is has been accepted by teenagers as fast food alternative.
References
http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all~content=a904372273 http://www.kitchenbutterfly.com/2010/02/09/akara-acaraje-the-brazilian-nigerian-connection/ http://allafrica.com/stories/200902250372.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acaraj%C3%A9 http://ezinearticles.com/?Brazilian-Food-With-History---Acaraje-of-Bahia-De-Sao-Salvador&id=2288717 http://www.odeigahouse.com/site/content_vegetarian_recipes.php
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