I loved partnering with Jason Townsend&Sons, my favorite historic clothier and provider of historic goods to produce a few videos for their wildly popular You Tube series on cooking in the 18th century, depicting the influence of enslaved Africans and African Americans in early American cuisine. We prepared these dishes out the historic kitchen at George Mason’s Gunston Hall Plantation in Mason Neck, Virginia. We prepared a version of akara, a black eyed pea fritter which was developed along the lower Guinea Coast among the Igbo, Yoruba and Fon peoples and their neighbors. Field Pea cakes are included in the first Southern cookbook, The Virginia Housewife by Mary Randolph. the homeland, akara had the skins removed, here we dont see that. They are also more of a fried cake and less of a puffy fritter than you would see in contemporary West Africa. Those who may not get an opportunity to see me do historic cooking live will certainly enjoy this. I will put up later videos which I will post to Afroculinaria, where we will be demonstrating kush!
Many thanks to Jas.Townsend&co for their generosity and kindness and for the wonderful videos they put together as well as my friends over at Gunston Hall. Many many thanks to all. If you like this post or the videos, feel free to share! Click here to learn more about traditional Nigerian akara. Be sure to pre-order The Cooking Gene!
