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…”