Acarajé.

Don't you love fritters made from pulses? Hot, crunchy little nibbles made from beans or peas which have been soaked, ground into a paste, formed into balls, patties or ovals, and deep fried? Things like falafel (chick peas), taamiya (from broad beans) and dahi vada (urid daal)? Couldn't you just eat them for breakfast, lunch and dinner every day?

Well not me, because I'm a cat. However on Sunday Martin made a version that even I might enjoy, as it contains ground dried shrimp along with the pulses. It comes from Bahia in northern Brazil, it's very much a black (i.e. African-Brazilian) thing, it's based on black-eyed peas and it's called acarajé. Soak a pound of the peas overnight, and then soak 2 ounces of dried shrimp (available from Chinese supermarkets in the UK) for half an hour. Put the soaked peas and shrimp through a blender together with an onion and a little salt until you have a smooth paste. Form walnut sized balls (or flatten into patties) and deep fry. Fantastic with any spicy seafood stew, and especially anything flavoured with dênde (unrefined palm oil), such as the following môlho de acarajé.

For this, soak 2 ounces of dried shrimp for 30 minutes, then blitz in a blender with an onion, plenty of dried red chillies and a bit of salt. Heat 3 tbs of dênde in a small pan and add the paste, fry for a few minutes and serve with the hot acarajé. Spicy, fishy Bahian street food that will even get an old diabetic cat like me licking his little lips.