EASY magazine, in keeping with the theme New Year New You, is offering up a dish with a difference each week for January – vegan style from Barbadian author and vegan Taymer Mason. These dishes will be meat-free, egg-free, dairy-free.
My inspiration for eggplant accras was my love for Barbadian fishcakes which are made with salted codfish and fresh herbs and spices and deep-fried. Sounds sinful right? Accras are a type of savoury fritters. These are perfect appetizers for a party. These taste just like the real thing and are really easy to make. Serve these with spicy mayo or just eat them alone.
Ingredients
1 medium eggplant peeled and cut into short thin strips
1 tablespoon (15 ml) neutral oil
3 nori sheets baked or mildly toasted, ground coarsely
1 ½ teaspoon salt to take the bitterness out of the eggplant
1 medium onions chopped finely
3 to 4 stalks green onions/ scallion minced finely
1 scotch bonnet pepper or habenero deseeded and minced finely
2 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
½ teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon salt or a salty veggie bouillon cube
2 cups (250 g) unbleached all-purpose flour
¾ to 1 cups (176 ml to 250 ml) water
1 ½ teaspoon double-acting baking powder (aluminum free if available)
Canola oil for deep or shallow frying
Method
Salt the eggplant and let sit for ten minutes. Squeeze eggplant strips until the strips turn from white to brown in colour, removing excess liquid.
Heat oil and sauté eggplant gently. Cover and cook eggplant until tender. Toast nori sheets over an open flame until they turn green. Place eggplant in a bowl and combine with seaweed, onion, chives, scotch bonnet, thyme and salt or veggie bouillon.
Mix in flour, water, and baking powder. This mixture can now be set aside for a few hours, refrigerated, or fried immediately. Heat the oil on a medium high heat for approximately seven minutes.
Use a dessert spoon to drop one fritter in the oil to test oil temperature. If the fritter gets too brown, quickly reduce the heat.
When deep-frying fritters make sure when you drop the fritter in the oil the spoon gets coated with oil. Fry fritters for four minutes over medium heat, turning as they bob to the surface. Drain fritters on absorbent paper.
ISLAND TIP:
The batter tends to turn dark if left overnight before frying. It is best to make your accras three or four hours before you are ready to fry them. Frying with a neutral oil is recommended. It is possible to shallow-fry instead of deep-frying, but note that this will affect the shape of your fritters. Can they be baked? Yes! To bake them, place them on a greased baking sheet. Bake at 350 F for 23 minutes turning twice throughout the baking process. These can be also made low fat by cooking them on a lightly sprayed non stick pan. To make spicy mayo mix 2 parts vegan mayo with 1 part ketchup and 1 part hot sauce.
Taymer Mason is a qualified and trained microbiologist and food technologist. She is a writer, Caribbean food specialist and consultant. Her book Caribbean Vegan can be found at Days and Best of Barbados bookstores. It is available worldwide from Borders to Barnes & Noble and amazon.com.
