Eggplant Fritters or Acra d’Aubergine or Akra Aubergine
Acras d’Aubergine or Eggplant Fritters the perfect recipe and one of the best ways to camouflage your veggies. Fritters are very popular in the Caribbean and are served at most events, and the recipe varies from meat, poultry, vegetables, and even fruits. As appetizers, they are perfect for entertaining guests.
Veggies, when cooked the right way, can be very delicious. Eggplant is one of the best vegetables, in my opinion, and no matter the recipe, it will be tasty. These fritters can certainly prove that. The batter is mixed with fresh herbs and spices and making it one of the easiest acra to make.
Usually deep-fried, in Haiti, fritters are best served hot, with Pikliz, a Creole Sauce, or hot sauce. At home, we normally make fritters maybe once every 2 – 3 months. The reason is that we don’t eat a lot of fried foods.
The ingredients needed to make the acra aubergine
- Eggplant: you can choose from the 3 common eggplants you find, Italian, graffiti, Japanese and Chinese.
- All-purpose flour: choose your best flour brand to make fritters.
- Water: must be at room temperature
- Scallions: you can also choose chives
- Shallot: this gives the fritters a nice onion flavor. Shallots have a slightly sweet flavor that complements the taste of the eggplant mixture.
- Garlic clove: fresh is best with fritters.
- Parsley: choose flat-leaf parsley and not coriander or cilantro.
- Salt and black pepper to taste
- Noubess Hot and Spicy Original with Herbs is an optional choice for hot sauce, but I would not ignore it. It gives the fritters tons of exotic flavors that will just explode in your mouth.
- Baking powder: to make the fritters fluffy and light
- Vegetable oil for frying use any other types of oil you prefer
How to make the fritters
Have you ever tried to bake fritters? If not done properly, they can be hard to chew and dry. I have tried to bake the popular Acra style from Haiti a few times, and everyone prefers it fried.
- Peel the eggplant, cut it into chunks, and place it in a saucepan. Fill a saucepan with water until the chunks are covered. Season the water with salt and cook for about 15 minutes.
- Remove the eggplant from the water and remove any excess water. Place in a bowl and mash with a potato masher or a fork. Break the chunks until the eggplant is completely mashed. Put aside.
- In a large bowl, mix the flour with the water. Add scallions, shallot, garlic, and parsley, hot and spicy original, with herbs and salt and pepper to taste. Stir to form a smooth paste. Season with additional salt and pepper if necessary.
- Add the baking powder and eggplant mixture and mix well. Let the mixture stand for 30 minutes.
- Heat the oil in a large saucepan of a deep fryer. When the oil is very hot, using a tablespoon, drop in the mixture and fry until golden. Do not crowd the pan, or the acras will not have enough room to rise. When golden, remove from the oil and drain on a plate plated with a paper towel. Serve the acras hot with hot (hot and spicy original with herbs) sauce, Pikliz, or your favorite dipping sauce.
A simple eggplant fritters recipe
These easy eggplant fritters are delightful as finger food. The process is simple. First, cook the eggplant in water with salt. The eggplant is then mashed completely without any excess water. A perfect blend of seasoning and flour mixture is added to the mashed eggplant before frying.
The key to making this recipe is seasoning. Adding the right seasoning blend to the vegetable and the flour mixture is important.
The frying process does not take long at all. A tablespoon of the mixture is usually enough to measure the fritters. Vegetable oil is also the best oil to fry foods. You may use canola oil if that is your choice.
If you have never made eggplant fritters and have the chance to go to a farmers’ market, please make it a point to try them. Nothing is better than a fresh eggplant bought from your local supermarket. Just remember this is a special fritter mixture. If you can master the mixture with the right seasoning, you can make any fritters you want.
You can try it with leftover chicken, shrimp, chayote, and carrot.
Enjoy!
Eggplant Fritters or Acra Aubergine
Ingredients
- 1 pound eggplant about 1 medium eggplant
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup water
- 3 scallions finely chopped
- 1 medium shallot finely chopped
- 1 large garlic clove (thinly sliced or crushed to make a paste)
- 1 tablespoon flat-leaf parsley finely chopped
- Salt and black pepper to taste
- 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon Noubess Hot and Spicy Original with Herbs
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- Vegetable oil for frying use any other types of oil you prefer
Instructions
- Peel the eggplant, cut in chunks and place in a saucepan. Fill saucepan with water until the chunks are covered. Season the water with salt and cook for about 15 minutes.
- Remove eggplant from water and remove any excess water. Place in a bowl and mash with a potato masher or a fork. Break the chunks until the eggplant is completely mashed. Put aside.
- In a large bowl, mix the flour with the water. Add scallions, shallot, garlic, and parsley, hot and spicy original with herbs and salt and pepper to taste. Stir to form a smooth paste. Season with additional salt and pepper if necessary.
- Add the baking powder and eggplant mixture and mix well. Let mixture stand for 30 minutes.
- Heat the oil in a large saucepan of a deep fryer. When the oil is very hot, using a tablespoon, drop in the mixture and fry until golden. Do not crowd the pan or the acras will not have enough room to rise. When golden, remove from the oil and drain on a plate plated with paper towel. Serve the acras hot with hot (hot and spicy original with herbs) sauce, Pikliz or your favorite dipping sauce.
Notes
- Remove excess water from the eggplant to avoid having a watery flour mixture.
- Serve with Pikliz or Noubess Original Hot and Spicy with Herbs
Nutrition
Please keep in mind that nutritional information is a rough estimate and can vary greatly based on the products used.
Nutrition info is automatically generated and provided as a courtesy and as an estimate only.
Corn Allergy:
Always choose ingredients without corn or corn derivatives.
Originally posted September 4, 2018. Updated.
