Nega Teresa and the Bahian Magic That Is An Acarajé

The acarajé, essentially a black eyed pea fritter fried in dende oil and smeared with shrimps and a spicy shrimp sauce, may be a staple in the diet of many Bahians but it’s popularity has spread to cities all over Brazil inhabited by migrants from the north. So popular in fact is the acarajé, it has sparked controversy over who may serve the lucrative snack. In Bahia, it is said that a quality acarajé vendor can reach a level of notoriety normally reserved for footballers. In my neighborhood of Santa Teresa in Rio, we are blessed with our own Ronaldo of the acarajé, Nega Teresa. With her colorful head wrap, traditional white blouse and billowing skirt, an outfit rooted in the practice of candomblé (a masala of traditional African animistic and mystic mythologies with a touch of catholicism sprinkled on [I found out today that I had this wrong. Umbanda is mixed with catholicism, while candomblé leaves out the guilt trip]), she holds court every Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights just around the corner from my flat. While these days even Emeril has his own acarajé recipe, if cariocas I’ve spoken with are to be believed, you would be hard pressed to uncover a better acarajé than Nega Teresa's in all of Salvador de Bahia!

Ingredients: black-eyed peas soaked over night, dried shrimp soaked 30 minutes, onion, garlic, fresh ginger, cayenne pepper, salt, olive oil, dende oil to fry fritter in.

• mash up softened peas and combine with shrimp, onion and garlic and form into burger size discs
  
• fry in adende oil until a golden brown, rotating as necessary
  
• remove from oil, blot dry, slice open and fill with more shrimp and cover with the mole de acaraje, essentially a creamy shrimp paste with onion, ginger and red pepper
  
• Eat carefully around the edge, “not like a burger, gringo!”