Where all the recipes at?

Sorry Sorry!

I am cooking, I'm just not going Ghanaian food. :s

I've been trying to eat healthy so have been cooking a lot of asian food (thai fried rice, deukbokki etc)

why you might ask? Well... how many fat asians have you seen lately? Yeah some of it is genetics but the low oil, low fat diet also plays a part.


I am trying to compile a list of restaurants/african markets where you can find ingredients so if you know any places put it in the comments section of this post.

I'll set up a page with all the goodies.

Quick Cook - Quick Chicken Stew

Last week I was staaarving, so I opened my fridge and had half an onion, three tomatoes and two pieces of chicken.. I stood there staring at those ingredients for about 5 minutes then decided "what the heck".

So Lesson 1: Try to stock up your fridge (and your pantry) as often as possible.
Lesson 2: You only need a few things to make an awesome dinner

You will need

1. Half an onion
2. Three tomatoes
3. Two pieces of Chicken*
4. Nutmeg
5. Maggi cube (if you can find some)
6. Adobo
8. One tin of tomato paste
9. Vegetable oil (enough to cover the pan)
10. Two tablespoons of flour
11. Pepper powder


* I usually boil my chicken first with some adobo, salt and pepper. You can choose to cook the chicken in the stew but you'll have to make adjustments for the amount of liquid you put in.


Instructions
1. Chop up the onion how you like. I was in a hurry this time so I just sliced them up.
2. Heat up the oil until it starts smoking and add the flour. Stir until it browns.
3. Add the onions and stir until they brown.
4. Chop up the tomatoes and blend with a little bit of pepper
5. Prepare your chicken. If you want to cook it first, boil in half a cup of water with adobo, salt and pepper.


By now I was starving so I just tossed all the other ingredients into the pot, added two cups of water, put the cooker on medium (electric stove top) and walked away.

An hour later I had yummy yummy chicken stew.

Fufu Powder

So I'm in the Motherland for xmas and inbetween stuffing my face with yummy ghanaian goodness I managed to get this awesome piece of advice from my mom about fufu powder.

"The trick is to follow the instructions carefully. It will be soft. Don't think you can add less water to make it harder, expect it to be soft. If you don't have a measurement for the cups of water then add it in slowly until it reaches the right consistency. Then have the patience and knead it properly. Also you can cook it in the microwave oh!"

I didn't really catch anything else coz I had visions of light soup and meat floating around my head.

Next recipe...might just be for light soup! Keep your fingers crossed

Juice Cubes

If you love fruit punches, cocktails and mixed drinks here's a little tip to avoid watering down your drinks.


JUICE CUBES!!!

Ingredients

1. Juice flavor. You can have juice that complements the juice in your punch e.g. grape juice for a mixed fruit juice punch. Or you can have the same juice/mixer that's included in your drink.


2. Ice cube tray (clean)

Directions

1. Pour juice into ice cube tray making sure it doesn't go over the line.

2. Freeze

TADA!!

This also sometimes works with alcohol if you mix a little water in before you freeze it. (Though why would you want to do that?)

Healthy "Fried Plantain"

PLANTAIN -- The low fat way

So I'm on a new "eat healthy" wave and have been trying to find ways of cooking Ghanaian food without a lot of fat/oil.

I know I know. It ruins the whole point of the food right. The whole point of the Ghanaian food is that layer of oil that sits on everything. But times are changing and our food is going to have to change with the times.

So here's my method of oven baked plantain. It's a little dryer than deep fried plantain but tastes just as good.

1. 2-3 pieces of plantain
2. Olive oil spray
3. Foil, Oven and baking tray
3. Salt and pepper to taste

1. Cut your plantain to your specifications. I like to make my slices flat so that both sides get nicely browned (Trying to simulate the deep fried look).

2. Wash the plantain, add salt and pepper and mix it in with your hand.

3. Line the baking tray with foil and spray lightly with the olive oil.

4. Lie the plantain in flat and lightly spray with olive oil again.

5. Set Oven to 425F and bake for 15 minutes**.

6. Check at minute 10 and turn over if nicely browned. Extend the bake time for another 5 minutes if it's not.

** Temperature and cook time depends on the health of your oven. Mine is old and doesn't heat up below 325F but burns at 450F

Happy Eating!!!

So I've decided to come back to blogging and to my surprise realized I've got a couple of views!!

So welcome to the people that have been interested in cooking Ghanaian food in quick easy steps.

I'll try to post a recipe once a month (if possible). There's quite a few things I don't cook because 1. I only know how to make them in large quantities and have to figure out how to make them smaller and 2. It's really hard to find the right ingredients.

Quick Cook: Plantain

Mmmm. Plantain = Kelewele.