A cold January evening and I thought I would resurrect and old childhood favourite of mine. Akara aka fried bean cakes. They are made from black eye beans (with eyes removed) ground with onions and peppers. When I was growing up it was a treat at birthdays, Christmas, guests who would come to the home and ‘just because’. My mother’s akara is delicious, soft, puffy and so so tasty. My memories of Christmas morning are filled with the hour that I would spend at the kitchen counter completing the tedious task of removing the eyes from the beans. The only thing that kept me going was the thought of the mouth watering product at the end of the labour. However, since leaving home, I have only rarely attempted to make akara for myself as the effort involved seemed all too much for me.

A few weeks ago I was shopping with my mother in Dalston and I bought a bag of ‘eyeless’ black eye beans. Seemed like a dream come true.

So I whizzed up a mixture of pepper, stock cube, onions, beans with a bit of water in the NutriBullet. I produced a puree, that in retrospect could have done with a little more water. The oil could also have been a little less hot. The end result were these slightly crunchy and dense little affairs that did not quite have the taste of home.

I have frozen the remaining mixture and will try again next week…