How to make Akara Onion Rings?

Akara is one food that cuts across most of West Africa. In a lot of the countries the name is actually ‘Akra’. In the north of Nigeria it is know as ‘Kose’.

I understand that there is also a similar dish in Brazil. So did Akara originate from West Africa or Brazil? I might just research that soon and start a movement of worldwide ‘Akara Day’.

Today I am looking at using the basic black eye bean paste and creating a more nutritional version of Onion rings which is a common English/American side dish.

Onion rings coated with white wheat flour batter is not my thing. My brain cannot seem to process the sweetness of onion combined with sweetness of white flour batter. I prefer a combination of Onion and something savoury and this is what I am bringing to this dish, Akara Onion rings.

So basically what I have done is to deconstruct Akara and make the onion prominent and present Akara in a fresh new way. For this recipe, I used the store-bought beans flour. Having tried this recipe with the freshly ground Akara and I did not get the desired level of coating on the onion rings as much as I would have wanted it to. So I opted for the beans flour. With the beans flour, it is easy to manage the quantity of water used very easily. However if you are an Akara expert then please go ahead and use the freshly washed and ground beans.

I noticed that with the freshly ground beans it coats the onion rings when no salt or seasoning is added to the whipped Akara mixture. As soon as these extra ingredients are added the beans paste just goes flat, looses air and fluffiness, and starts to separate the water from the paste. There is something that salt does to the paste that causes this reaction to take place.

Akara onion rings will definitely make for good starter or finger food at parties. Then again, serving this with our typical Ogi for breakfast could also be interesting.

How to make Akara Onion rings?

1 cup Beans flour (store bought)

Dry pepper to taste

Salt to taste

1 teaspoon chopped Parsley (optional)

Onion rings

Oil for frying

Method

1. Mix beans flour with water as recommended on the product pack to achieve the consistency for making akara.
2. Whip the beans flour until fluffy and light.
3. Add the pepper, salt and continue to whip.
4. Heat the oil.
5. Take out small portions of the whipped paste par time into a a deep bowl or cup. Add the some parsley, mix and dip the onion rings a few at a time. Ensure each ring is well coated.
6. Fry each ring till golden brown.
7. Drain off on kitchen paper.
8. Serve warm as side dish or a starter.