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Cornille beans are a type of black-eyed bean that only take 10 minutes to cook if rehydrated over-night.
Prep time: 20 minutes/Cook time: 85 minutes/Serves: 6
Ingredients:
400g cornille beans
15g fresh baker’s yeast (or 2 sachets of dried baker’s yeast)
1/2 onion (optional)
3 garlic cloves
salt and freshly-ground black pepper, to taste
1 hot chilli
100ml (more or less) of lukewarm water
For the hot sauce:
2 onions, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
2 tbsp oil
salt, freshly-ground black pepper and hot chilli powder, to taste
1 hot chilli (typically habanero or scotch bonnet), chopped
1 Maggi cube
1 tsp of vinegar
1 tbsp of tomato purée
1 fresh tomato.
Method:
The day before, wash the beans, place in a large bowl or pot then cover with 2l water and set aside to soak over night.
For the hot sauce, mix the garlic cloves of garlic, 2 onions and the hot chilli pepper in a bowl. Place a saucepan over medium heat, add the oil and when hot use to fry the onion mixture for 3 minutes. Now stir in the tomato purée until blended into the oil, followed by the finely diced fresh tomato.
Fry for 5 minutes, adjust the seasoning to taste and stir in 100ml of water. Bring to a boil then reduce the heat to low, cover and continue cooking for 10 minutes. Take off the heat and set aside.
For the accras fritter, mix together the finely chopped garlic, onion and chilli in a bowl. Season to taste with salt, black pepper and chilli powder. Crumble in the Maggi cube and stir to combine.
Using your hands, swirl the beans in the bowl then rub between your palms to loosen the skins. These will rise to the surface so you can skim or pour them off. Continue in this manner until all the skins have been removed. Rinse several times in cold water to ensure all this skins are gone.
Dissolve the yeast in 4 tbsp lukewarm water. Tip the beans into a blender. Process to chop, then with the motor running add in enough of the 100ml lukewarm water drop by drop until the mixture is foamy and the beans are broken very fine. Continue processing for 2 minutes after you reach this stage.
Pour into a bowl, mix in the finely-chopped vegetables and the yeast then cover and set aside to rest for 60 minutes.
In the meantime, pre-heat your deep fryer to 240°C.
Using your hands, take small portions of the dough, shape into rough balls and drop in the hot oil (you can add several, but do not over crowd and do not allow the oil to cool too much). Turn the fritters with a slotted spoon as soon as they are golden on one side. Once browned all over and cooked through, remove with a slotted spoon and drain on kitchen paper as you cook the next batch.
Serve with the hot sauce.
The fritters freeze well and will keep for several weeks. To serve, thaw then re-heat in a hot oven for 10 minutes.
