Benin: Akara

I couldn't eat these.

The first of my project where I was physically unable to stomach them. I took one mouthful and had to run for the bathroom, followed by eating a large icecream.



My partner absolutely loved them, but he has a significantly larger tolerance to spice than I do. I'm not sure what I was thinking by putting in half a scotch-bonnet pepper. I already know from previous meals I've cooked in this project that scotch-bonnets can only be enjoyed in very VERY small amounts (like my macaroni cheese from Bahamas which was absolutely perfect!).

So unfortunately due to my lack of consumption, I have no idea what they tasted like, except extremely spicy. Nick thinks that they didn't have much other flavour, apart from the spice, so that's obviously a real winner (not).


I really think I followed the instructions wrong. In fact, I know that I did. The recipe I was following suggests using dried black-eyed beans, and soaking them before removing the skins. I had a can of the beans which I tried to shell but my impatience got the best of me so I just ended up using them all with the shells still intact. The recipe told me to whip the batter together like you would a cake - I used a food processor.

I'm not going to put down my method here because I know for sure that somehow I got it wrong, plus I have no way of knowing whether or not they came out tasty. If you have the patience that I so clearly lack, and are interested in trying this dish then I'd recommend you looking at the original recipe here.



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