Black-eyed bean fritters with prawn sauce

Acarajé are bean fritters originally made and sold on the streets of the city of Salvador by the ‘Baianas’ - female vendors dressed in frilly white cotton dresses and traditional African headscarves - as the recipe was taken to Brazil by the slaves from the West African coast. They are usually deep-fried in palm oil (dendê) which gives them their reddish colour, then split in half and filled with all kinds of different sauces, making them a challenge to eat without making a mess.