Destination
Rio de Janeiro
The story
Acarajé is Salvador's most iconic street food and one of the most sacred foods in Brazil. A patty of ground black-eyed peas, deep-fried until dark bronze in dendê (red palm oil), split open like a pita and stuffed with vatapá (a bread-and-shrimp paste), caruru (okra with dried shrimp), fresh salsa and a smear of pimenta if you want the heat. Sold on street corners across the historic centre by Baianas do acarajé, Candomblé priestesses in white lace dresses, turbans and beads. UNESCO put the whole tradition on its intangible cultural heritage list in 2005.
Method
Drain the soaked beans. Rub them vigorously between your hands, or pulse in a food processor briefly, to loosen the skins. Cover with cold water and skim off the floating skins. Repeat until the beans are mostly clean and cream-coloured. This is tedious but non-negotiable: the skins turn the fritters grey and bitter.
Drain the peeled beans well. Blend with the onion and salt in a food processor until smooth and fluffy, scraping down as needed. The mixture should be pale, thick and hold its shape when spooned. If it's too wet, refrigerate 20 minutes to firm up.
Soak the bread in the coconut milk 5 minutes. Blend with the drained shrimp, peanuts, cashews, onion, garlic and ginger to a thick paste. Warm the dendê in a saucepan, add the paste and cook 10 to 15 minutes over low heat, stirring often, until it thickens like porridge. Season with salt.
Pour the dendê into a deep, heavy pot to a depth of at least 6cm. Heat to 175°C (350°F). A small piece of batter dropped in should rise to the surface within 5 seconds and turn deep bronze in 90 seconds.
Wet two large spoons with cold water. Scoop a heaped tablespoon of batter with one spoon, use the other to shape it into an oval quenelle. Slide gently into the hot oil. Work in batches of 3 or 4: don't crowd the pot.
Fry each fritter 3 to 4 minutes per side, turning once, until deep red-bronze and puffed. The colour should be dramatic, almost mahogany from the palm oil. Lift out with a slotted spoon and drain briefly on kitchen paper.
Slit each fritter along one side to open like a pita. Spoon in a generous scoop of vatapá, a spoon of caruru if using, a heap of fresh salsa, a whole dried shrimp on top, and pimenta to taste. Serve immediately.
Tips
- Skinning the beans is the whole game. If you can't be bothered to skin every last bean, blitz the soaked beans briefly in a processor and float the skins off in a bowl of water. Grey acarajé is a sign of a lazy cook.
- Dendê (red palm oil) is what makes acarajé acarajé. Neutral oil gives you a fine fritter, but not the mahogany colour, savoury depth or scent that defines the dish. Sold at Brazilian and West African grocers.
- Two wet spoons is the traditional shaping method. Practice on a plate first, transferring batter from spoon to spoon, before you touch the hot oil. Uneven quenelles fry unevenly.
- Start with seco. The pimenta in Salvador is genuinely fierce (malagueta chilli blended with dendê). If you're not raised on it, ask for seco (dry) or medio (medium) and add heat gradually.
- Acarajé is worst reheated. Eat straight from the fryer. If you must make ahead, fry once briefly to seal and re-fry for 90 seconds when ready to serve.
More recipes
View all
Fried bulgur-and-beef torpedoes stuffed with more spiced beef and pine nuts. The Lebanese diaspora's greatest gift to the Brazilian boteco.
Salt cod, potato, onion and parsley shaped between two spoons and deep-fried until golden. The Portuguese fritter that colonised every Brazilian boteco.
Thin, crackling pastry deep-fried around a ground-beef filling. The classic feirinha snack, sold with sugarcane juice on Saturday mornings.
A teardrop of shredded chicken (and catupiry cream cheese, if you're doing it right) wrapped in dough, breaded and deep-fried. The corner-shop snack every Brazilian grew up on.
Fried tapioca-and-coconut dumplings rolled in cinnamon sugar. The cheap Northeastern sweet named for the student's budget it fits.
Crab meat cooked with coconut, dendê and coriander, baked back into the shell it came from. Salvador's most elegant petisco.