A Cooking Lesson!

Plantains, local peppers, and tiger nut powder

It came to my attention that Americans don’t really have a clear understanding of Africa and Ghana, which is fine but I guess there is something I should explain.  This was made apparent to me last week when I told my mom about the cooking class our wonderful Ghanaian RAs gave us on local dishes.  Mom promptly asked, “So, did you cook it on a stove or over a fire?”  I think I just burst into laughter when she said this, but I guess it’s my fault for not entirely explaining the living conditions in Ghana.

First of all, and this is important, Ghana has suburbs just like America.  It’s as if ordinary suburban scenes is a taboo subject when it comes to Africa.  In fact, there are many huge houses in my neighborhood of Labone.  I think, all too often, people see Africa as one big rural underdeveloped area.  The truth that I have found since being here is that Africa, like America, has a lot of economic disparity.  There are parts of this city that are obviously wealthy with big ocean side mansions, and then there are also the impoverished areas.

So to answer my mom’s question: yes, I did cook over a stove.  If I walk down the street I might see a woman selling plantains roasted over a fire, but I have yet to do this myself (though I’d love to try).  And I have seen a few casual restaurants cooking food over a fire.  But for the purposes of my daily cooking, we have a huge kitchen in our house with three stoves.

Anyways, I took good notes on the recipes we made with the RAs, though there is a lot of estimating in these recipes—no measurements!  But that makes it more fun and tailored to your personal tastes.

Red Red

Preparing Red Red

Soak black-eyed peas in water overnight to soften.  Drain well.  Cook it on medium heat (on your stove) for about 2 hours until softened.  Meanwhile, chop up 3 onion, a hunk of fresh ginger, maybe about 6 garlic cloves, papushto (local little green peppers, use green bell peppers to substitute) and a few pounds of tomatoes.

Cook the onion in a few glugs of palm oil (this is a lovely red oil).  Use more than you think you’ll need.  All the onions should be fully immersed in the oil.  I’m sure other oils can be used but palm oil is part of what gives this dish a nice red color.  An optional ingredient is smoked salmon.  Add chunks of smoked salmon to the onion mixture to cook. 

Palm Oil

Smoked Salmon

Blend together the tomato, garlic, ginger, peppers, and a bit of water in a blender until smooth.  Add the tomato juice mixture to the onions and cook down a bit.  Add the drained cooked beans (do not get rid of the bean water) to the tomato mixture.  Add some of the bean water to lighten.  Add chopped carrots and green beans to taste (optional).  Cook for about another 20 minutes until all is heated through and the carrots are tender.

Fried Plantains (traditionally always served with Red Red)

Cut plantains diagonally.  Sprinkle with salt.  Heat about an inch of vegetable oil in a pan.  Do not let the oil smoke.  Fry the plantains until crisp, then flip over and fry the other side.  They should turn very brown and slightly black.  They will be crispy and chewy on the outside while tender and sweet on the inside.

Nanama teaching us how to fry plantains

Tiger Nut Pudding

In a pan mix together about 1 cup of Tiger Nut powder (from the tiger nut fruit and ground into powder form) with sugar to taste and mix in a liter of full cream milk.  Add one tin sweetened condensed milk and nutmeg to taste.  Heat over medium heat.  Stir occasionally until thickened, making sure milk does not scorch on the bottom of the pan.  When thickened, put in the refrigerator to chill.

Tiger Nut Pudding

Making Pineapple Ginger Juice

Pineapple Ginger Juice

Cut up the freshest, sweetest pineapple you can find.  Add to a blender and blend until smooth.  Then strain the pineapple through a sieve to get pure pineapple juice.  For a thinner juice simply crush the pineapple with your hands in a strainer set over a bowl.  Peel and chop ginger and puree the ginger in the blender.  Add ginger to taste to your pineapple juice.  With the pineapple pulp you can add some cream or milk and put in the freezer for an ice cream type dessert.

The finished meal!