Acarajé – Brazilian seafood fritters

Ingredients for fritters:

• 2 cups of black-eyed peas; soaked overnight
• 2 tbsp dried shrimp (optional – but easily available in Chinese supermarkets)
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 11/2 tbsp ground pepper
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• Dendê (palm) oil (or any vegetable oil)

Ingredients for the filling:

• 1/2 cup dried shrimp
• 1/2 cup fresh king prawns
• 1 cup roughly chopped onion
• 1 tsp peeled fresh ginger
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 1 tomato
• 1/2 chopped red pepper
• 2 tbsp oil (as above)
• Juice of 1 lime
• Salt to taste

Instructions to make the fritters:

1. Rub the peel off the beans (pre-soaking makes this easier).
2. Combine all ingredients in a blender and keep going until you have a smooth purée.
3. Break up the mixture into ten balls of equal size.
4. Heat the oil in a frying pan and deep-fry the balls of dough for around 7-8 minutes or until crisp on all sides.
5. Transfer onto paper towels to absorb excess oil and, when cool enough, slice down the centre of each fritter and spread with seafood filling.

Instructions to make the filling:

Soak the dried shrimp in cold water, to cover, for 30 minutes.
Drain and blend with the onion, garlic, ginger, tomato, red pepper and lime juice in a food processer.
Heat the oil in a frying pan and fry the mixture for about 5 minutes, together with the fresh king prawns.
Season with salt to taste.