Beans Cake : How To Prepare Akara (Kosai)

So I wrote about how to make Kunun Gyada yesterday, and I actually took the Kunun Gyada with Akara. So I decided to tell you how to make Akara today.

Akara is also called “beans cake” and it is made from white beans. It is a recipe used mostly for breakfast. The beans is soaked in water to enable the removing of the coat.

There are two ways to remove the coat from the beans:

1. After soaking the beans in water for a while, you can pack it from the water and put in a mortar and use a pistil to crush the bean. Crushing it will help in separating the beans from the coat.
2. After soaking the beans for a while, you use your hands to scrub the beans, this also helps in the separation of the beans from the coat. But this process is more suitable for a small quantity of beans.

The coat has to be removed because it tends to cause bad air for people with a weak stomach, if not washed well

With all that being said, let’s begin the process.

Ingredients

• 6 cups of white beans
• 24 pieces of fresh pepper.
• 1 medium size Onion
• Vegetable Oil
• 3 seasoning Cubes
• Salt
• 1 stalk of spring onion
• Mixed Pepper Spice (optional)

For practical lovers like me, you can watch the video below.

PREPARATION

Soak the beans in water for 40 minutes.

Pound or Wash the beans to separate them from the coat.

Turn in a bowl and wash until all the peeled beans are completely separated from the coat. Pick the Coat out if necessary.

Note: To make it easy to wash, turn the beans into a wide bowl.

Wash with clean water and drain in to a bowl.

Wash the Pepper and Onion, add it to the to beans.

You can use a blender if you have one or take it for grinding.

Nicely chop the spring onion.

Wash, add the chopped spring onion in the paste.

Add the seasoning cubes, salt and a little water and mix well.

Note: Do not add too much water so as not to make it watery.

Set a frying pan on heat, add the Vegetable oil enough to deep fry and allow to heat up. Note: it shouldn’t be too hot to prevent burning or not getting done within.

Using a spoon, fetch the paste and drop it gently in the oil on heat. Note: Do not reduce the heat when you have put the paste in the oil to fry because it tends to soak the oil when there is a reduction in heat level.

Keep watch and when it turns brown, flip it over for the other side to do the same.

When the Akara is brown on both sides, pack into a basket and allow to cool off a bit.

Your Akara is ready to be served.You can serve it with Custard, Pap, Kunun Gyada, Kunun Tsamiya, Bread etc. Using the Mixed Pepper makes it more enjoyable to eat.

More Nigerian fooed recipes coming…

See you next time.