Ackee Fritters

Today's recipe was inspired by a dish from Turtle Bay (ah, do I miss the cocktails). Now, I'm not entirely sure if it's now disappeared from the menu or if I've just completely made this dish up - I really am starting to question because I can't appear to find it online... Regardless, from what I can recall they did a sweetcorn fritter dish, wrapped in a flatbread and served with mayo. Funnily enough, I'm not the biggest sweetcorn fan, which makes me wonder why I would even order that meal. Nonetheless, it clearly left a good impression, but I decided to replace the sweetcorn with ackee for my take on it. It was relatively simple to make considering I don't think I've made fritters before. There were loads of vegan recipes online but I chose to follow the below from Tropical Sun Foods.

For the fritters:

55g plain flour

55g gram flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tbsp ground coriander (replaced this with jerk seasoning mix).

1/2 tsp red chilli flakes

1/2 tsp dried thyme

2 cloves garlic, puréed

160ml soya milk (I used oat)

1 tin (280g) Tropical Sun Ackee, drained and gently rinsed in cold water 

Oil, for shallow frying

Method:

1.     In a small bowl, mix together the yogurt and jerk seasoning and leave to chill in the fridge. 

2.     In a large bowl, mix together the plain flour, gram flour, baking powder, coriander, chilli flakes, thyme and garlic, followed by the soya milk. Whisk to form a smooth batter.

3.     Drain the ackee in a sieve and rinse under gentle cold water for a few seconds. Whisk the ackee into the mixture, preserving some of the ackee pieces for texture.

4.     Add oil to a large frying pan on medium-high heat, Once the oil is hot, spoon a heaped tablespoons of batter into the pan and flatten each slightly with your spatula. Do not overcrowd the pan. 

5.     Cook each fritter for 3-4 minutes, flip over and cook for a further 2-3 minutes until deliciously browned on the outside and cooked through.

I served mine in a homemade sweet potato flatbread with salad, curried chickpeas, peri sauce and mayo!

See the full recipe below: 

https://tropicalsunfoods.com/blogs/our-recipes/ackee-fritters