Black Eyed Pea Fritters

[Gourmet_Mom]

William typically ignores my cooking shows. And to be honest, I don't always pay attention to the Saturday evening back to back Triple D shows. But tonight, he called for me come look! "I want to know where this place is! I want to go eat these!!!"

I looked online and found a recipe for Black Eyed Pea Fritters. William said the chef didn't use flour in the recipe. So I think the one I found must be close. I hope to watch a showing of the episode tomorrow afternoon at 3 ET. Just in case the chef added any additional spices to the basic recipe.

You all know how I love me some black eyed peas, so I'm anxious to try this some time. It is a Cuban recipe, I think, so I'm hoping Alina will jump in. Have any of the rest of you heard of this? New to me!

[Cubangirl]

Black eyed pea fritters are one of my favorite foods ever. They are called Bollitos de Carita in Cuba. You make them using peas, garlic and egg and deep fry them. Nothing else, no flour, onions, hot pepper, etc. I made up my own recipe but would love one that does not require soaking the peas to skin them as that is a PITA. Here's what I've done:
BOLLITOS DE CARITA OR BLACK-EYED PEA FRITTERS

Servings: 8

Preparation Time: 1 hour
Cooking Time: 15 minutes
Inactive Time: 9 hours
Total Time: 10 hours and 15 minutes

½ lb. dried black-eyed peas beans
4 cloves of mashed garlic,
4 tsp. kosher salt
6 TBS. of water

You soak the ½ lb dried beans, take off the skins, soak them for ½ hour more and then put them in the FP with 4 cloves of mashed garlic, 2 tsp salt and process them. Then you drizzle 6 TBS. of water and process until puréed. You drop the it by TBS. onto 375° F. oil. They come out golden and delicious, not greasy. and reasonably healthy for fried food.
Recipe Type: Beans, Cuban Food, Deep Fat Frying, Side Dish
Author: MINE

I've been meaning to try them without skinning the peas.

Here's a link to the recipe from one of my favorite Cuban Cookbooks. Bollitos

[cjs]

Hmmm, I'm so for trying this!! I've cooked black-eyed peas lots of times and did not know they are supposed to be peeled????

Just checked, there are two episodes today but don't sound like what you are talking about. But, I programmed them anyway just in case.

[Gourmet_Mom]

Jean, the episode title was something about beaches. And the restaurant was a Cuban place in Miami.

Alina, the chef soaked them, then while still in the water, he rubbed them between his hands quickly. The skins came right off and floated to the top. Then it's just a matter of skimming the husks off the top of the water.

And yes, this is very much like the recipe I found! Thanks!

[Cubangirl]

I did what the chef did, but mine took a lot longer to have all peeled.
BTW, no egg, not sure why I put that above, but sorry if I confused anyone.

Jean, the black eyed peas used are not cooked first, so I imagine that is why they are peeled. I've seen similar African and Brazilian recipes that use canned cooked peas and some even black eye pea flour, but the taste is not the same per the comments.

If you fry them at the right temp, they are a really healthy snack. Black eyed peas are high in fiber, protein, potassium and other good stuff, since you don't add anything else but garlic (also good for you). There should be almost no grease on the paper towel when they come out of the fryer. A small cookie disher is great for portioning. The batter is runny but it will form into a ball.

[cjs]

I'm not talking about canned or precooked peas - I'm using dried black-eyed peas in any number of soups and dishes. But, I've never peeled and the back of pkg. says nothing about doing that.

So, I'm kind of confused.

[Cubangirl]

My guess is that you've probably cooked them like beans before using right? Here they are ground, seasoned, and cooked (fried) for a very short time. My guess is that peeling allows the peel forms a barrier which would make it harder for the beans to absorb the seasoning and soften enough to be pleasant to eat when fried. That is just my guess.

[labradors]

In seventh-grade Spanish class, we did something where each of us made a Spanish or Latin-American food. The only ones I remember are the gazpacho that I took and the black-eyed pea fritters someone else made. I thought those fritters were delicious even though, at the time, I had never had black-eyed peas and probably wouldn't have liked them any other way. I'll have to give this recipe a try sometime.

[cjs]

huh

[Mare749]

I saw Rachel Ray do the same thing with chickpeas just the other day. She called it a falafel burger and pan fried it.

ETA: Oops. Just went and looked up the recipe. It is not the same. She used canned beans.