Haitian Accra Recipe

Accra is Ryan’s favorite Haitian food!  It can be eaten as an appetizer or as a side to chicken, beef, fish, or anything you want.  It is best when eaten with pikliz on top, so I encourage you to check out that recipe and make both for the same meal.

*Do not confuse with okra, an edible green seed pod in the U.S.  They’re not the same

Ingredients

• 13 Malanga root *Can be found in Latin American markets and some garden stores.
• Half of a Green Pepper, chopped
• 1 Green onion (white part only)
• 4 Garlic cloves
• Small bunch of Parsley
• 3 Hot peppers (scotch bonnet)
• 1 ½ chicken bouillon cubes
• Salt to taste
• Hot sauce to taste
• Vegetable oil for frying

*Serves about 20 people (or 5 Ryan’s)

Step 1: Prepare the Malanga

Start off by chopping off the ends of the malanga. Then with a sharp knife peel off the brown, hairy skin. (You can try doing this with a peeler, but from my experience, you need something more heavy duty.)

Then clean further by scrubbing each one with a brush under running water until it is mostly white and smooth in appearance. Use your hands also to clean each one. *You may want to use gloves whenever you are touching the malanga because they will make you itchy!

Over a large bowl, “grate” each malanga up and down with the smallest holes in your grater. (The more surface area on your grater, the faster it will go). It will start dripping off your grater as a wet paste. This is hard work, and I was almost in tears because my arm was so wimpy! Continue until you have grated all malanga.

Note how much Josiane grated and how little I grated in the same amount of time

Step 2: Prepare the Seasonings

Get out your mortar and pestle (or small bowl and something to smash the following ingredients). You could use a food processor or blender, but as our Haitian cooks says, it won’t have the same flavor.

 

Put green pepper, white part of green onion, 4 garlic cloves, small bunch of parsley, 3 hot peppers, and 1 ½ chicken bouillon cubes into the mortar and smash with pestle. This will also take some work, and it may make your eyes tear up from the hot peppers. Do this until it becomes a paste.

Step 3: Mix Everything Together

Pour the smashed up paste into the malanga bowl. Add a little salt and hot sauce to taste. Mix well.

 Step 4: Fry to Make Accra

Put a deeper frying pan on the stove and turn heat to medium-high.

Fill pan with ½ to 1 inch of vegetable oil. Heat for a few minutes.

Take a small spoonful of malanga mixture and drop it into oil to see if it’s hot enough. It should bubble but not be spitting.

When oil is ready, use a wide spatula to scoop ½ inch wide strips of malanga mixture up. (Kind of the shape of a fat French fry). Drop into oil and continue doing this until your pan is full of malanga strips.

Fry for about 3 – 4 minutes. You can shift them around in the pan while it’s cooking. When the bottom is a golden brown color, flip each one and fry the other side for the same amount of time.

When finished, remove from pan and set on paper towel to drain off oil.

Repeat until all malanga is fried.

Step 5: Bon Apetit – or in Kreyol – Byen Manje!

Display your beautiful accra in a fun pan and enjoy!  As the saying goes, “I bet you can’t eat just one…”

*This quantity feeds an army of about 30 people.  You can trim the recipe down for however many hungry mouths you have to feed.

Step 1:  Prepare Vegetables

Rinse all vegetables to clean.

Peel carrots.  Chop off top.

Peel chayote.  Cut each chayote into fourths – down the center the long way.  It has a “heart” in the center of each one, so cut that out with a knife after quartering it.

Peel eggplant.  Cut each eggplant into fourths – down the center the long way.

Remove outer leaves and core of cabbage.  Cut into large chunks.

Roughly chop watercress, removing any bad leaves.

Step 2:  “Boil” Vegetables

In a large pot, heat a little vegetable oil, about 2 tablespoons tomato paste, a little salt, a little water, and a crushed chicken bouillon cube.  Stir.

In this order, put chayote, eggplant, carrot, watercress, and cabbage into the large pot.  (You will need two pots if you’re making a lot.)  Turn on heat to medium/high and cover.  Leave on for about 1 hr. and 15 min.  You will not need to stir this, as your pot will be too full to do that.  It will create its own water, so do not add any during this process.

Step 3:  Make Marinade

Rinse a small bunch of parsley, 1 hot pepper, and 2 green onions.  Peel and rinse an entire head of garlic.

If you have a mortar and pestle, that is perfect for this next step.  If you don’t, get one soon.  In the meantime, you can use a small bowl and something to smash these ingredients.  Put parsley, hot pepper, green onions, and all garlic into mortar/bowl and smash away.   Do this until it becomes a wet paste.  *Marjory tells me not to use a food processor or chopper for this step.  It will not be as flavorful.

Step 4:  Prepare the Beef

Cut limes in half.  Squeeze juice into separate bowl and remove seeds.  Set juice aside.

Trim fat off beef and discard.  Cut remaining beef into small chunks.

In a large bowl, but a few tablespoons vinegar, about 1 tsp. salt, limes, and beef.  Stir and clean beef with limes.  *You can use chicken or goat instead of beef.

Fill a large pot with water and heat – not quite to boiling.  Put beef in water for 1 minute.  Remove beef.  Discard water.

Return beef to same pot.  Add previously prepared marinade, juice from limes, a few tablespoons butter, and a few tablespoons vegetable oil.  Turn on stove to medium/high and let cook until soft, stirring occasionally.  This may take 30 – 60 minutes.

Step 5:  Back to the Vegetables

By now they should be done cooking, and be nice and soft.  Drain all water from pot.

Slice carrots into relatively thin slices.

 In large pot, mash all the rest of the veggies with pestle until they are pretty mushy.  This will take some elbow-grease and sweat.  Add them little by little to the pot to accomplish this task.

This device will work as well to mush them up.  Not sure what it’s called, but apparently every Haitian owns one.

Step 6:  Put it all Together

Go back to the pot where the meat is.  Add a few large spoonful’s of tomato paste and a little water to the meat.  Stir.

Add all cooked legumes to the meat.  Also add about ½ to 1 cup of vegetable oil and a few tablespoons of butter to the pot.  Stir well.

Chop 1 green pepper and throw that into the pot as well.

Turn heat to medium-high and boil everything for about an hour – uncovered.  In doing this, you are trying to get all the excess water to evaporate from the pot.  Stir about every 10 – 15 minutes to prevent it from burning/sticking to the bottom.

Step 7:  Prepare the White Rice

While you’re waiting for the vegetables, you can prepare the white rice.  Feel free to make it however you usually do, but here’s how Marjory makes it:

In a large pot, pour about ½ cup vegetable oil.  Throw in 1 green onion and some salt to taste.  Turn stove to high and heat this up.

Then add water.  (Marjory never measures, but she added enough to fill the pot about ½ to 2/3 full.)  Cover and heat this to boiling.

Discard green onion.  Rinse about 10 cups of uncooked rice and add to pot.  Stir and cover.  Let cook until water is absorbed and rice is soft.  If water starts boiling out of pot, uncover and stir again.  Recover after it calms down.

Step 8:  Enjoy!

Put some rice on your plate and then the legumes on top of that.  Sit down with family or friends and enjoy this delicious meal!