Today, I am sharing yet another brown bean recipe with you. Finger foods, small chops, canapés, chop-chop, nibbles, call them what you may, they are gaining popularity, I feel, because they offer diners the opportunity to savour myriad varieties of tastes, flavours and textures, albeit in small bite-size portions. Canapés are popular at all kinds of parties where they are served as starters or even made available as the only food to be served.
I love the fact that with canapés you can experiment with all sorts of ingredients, matchmaking them to give both visual and sensual pleasure. There are no limits to what you can achieve with canapés, so I am on a roll imagining and creating great tasting, visually pleasing range!!
Today's recipe is really simple and has quite a delightful taste. As a variation, you can use some other types of fish, preferably an oily fish. For vegetarians, you can stuff the canapés with some cheddar cheese or some sautéed mushrooms. The stuffing you decide to use must not be limited to those used in this recipe, explore with other ingredients....and share with me when you achieve a fantastic combo. Looking forward to it.
Ingredients:
- 2 cups of Nigerian Brown beans (black eye peas can also be used. Also some use already peeled beans but I rarely use powdered or bean flour).
- 1 pack of sliced smoked salmon
- 1 ramiro pepper (tatase) or half of one red bell pepper
- 1 large onion, cut into chunks (Beans and onions work so well together. The more the better but care must be taken not use too much. You must strive for a balance)
- 1 large egg
- Some stock granules (optional)
- Salt to taste
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| Salmon Stuffed Rolled Akara Canapé |
What to do:
- Soak beans in water for about 30 minutes. This will make peeling them easy. Rinse off all brown skin of the beans to leave the white shells. In a blender, finely blend the beans, onions and pepper. Add a cup of water to aid blending, add a little more if required. Take care not to create a watery loose blend.
- Empty the content of the blender into a large mixing bowl. Proceed to mix the blend continuously for about 3-5 minutes. Believe me this creates a really good texture for the akara.
- Then add the egg and mix well again. The egg makes the akara hold together better. Also add 1 spoon of tomato paste, one or two spoonfuls of stock granules and some salt to taste. Give it another good mixing and add some water to adjust the consistency. Your final mix should have the same consistency as a pancake batter. Use a really small frying pan such as a blini pan for frying. This helps to regulate the amount of oil you use and also helps you achieve the flat shape similar to a pancake.
- Heat 1 spoon of oil in the blini pan and scoop some akara mix on the pan. Allow the akara to cook on one side then flip the to enable all sides to be well cooked and browned. When cooked, place on some kitchen towel to remove any excess oil. Then place a slice of smoked salmon on the akara and roll. Its best to roll the akara while still hot as it is still very malleable. Don't try to roll when the akara is cold because it will break! ...
- Repeat this process for each of the akara pancake you make.
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| Serve with some caviar |