Hope for reducing aflatoxins in African peanuts and maize

When asked about taking groups to West Africa on culinary tours,  I have been hesitant to undertake such a project due to issues of food safety and quality control. A serious problem surrounding peanut and maize production in Africa, for example, is the prevalence of mycotoxins, types of fungi that can contaminate food before, during or after it is harvested/processed. Since the 1960s there has been a new recognition of the health and other impacts of  one group of mycotoxins known as aflatoxins (in particular, Aspergillus flavus and A. parasiticus) in Africa. According to the most recent quarterly newsletter of the  African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) (04, Oct. 2009-Jan 2010) "These toxins are potent causes of cancer and suppress the immune system causing greater susceptibility of humans and animals to diseases. . . High levels of aflatoxin contamination in agricultural products also affect international trade since agricultural products that have more than permissible levels of contamination are rejected in the global market." The fungi thrive in environments of moisture and insect damage. It is therefore imperative to know how the maize in the ball of kenkey or corn dough was stored, how the peanuts in the tankora powder were processed, etc., in order to be confident that they are fungus-free. One cannot tell by looking or tasting.

New biocontrol products are now being developed to help: AflaSafe for maize by the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and Afla-guard by the United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service (now licensed to a private company). This is good news for us all.

Recipe #41: Pino, another light (and delightful) gari dish

Anyone who has ever turned to seasoned couscous for a quick side starch for a meal needs to learn to love gari, a form of cassava meal (aka manioc, yucca) I've enthused about previously. Last week when I made the beef and chicken versions of chichinga (a West African kebab) we didn't eat them as a snack, but made a light meal out of it by pairing them with pino, a quickly and easily prepared seasoned version of gari, some fresh vegetables, and a bottle of chilled chardonnay. A simple, satisfying and elegant meal.

Since I used part of a roasting chicken for the chicken chichinga, while I was making the tankora powder and preparing the meat and poultry I simmered the rest of the chicken in a pot with water, salt, onion, celery, garlic, fresh scotch bonnet pepper, etc.  to make chicken stock.

Then, just before putting the skewers of chichinga under the broiler, I put couple of teaspoons of peanut oil in a nonstick skillet, sauteed a third of a medium chopped onion and added a little tomato paste and some seasoning (salt, red pepper) and 1 1/2 cups of chicken stock. If a Ghanaian had a little Ghana-style gravy left over from another meal, she or he would likely just mix that in with the stock or (sigh, water and a seasoning cube . . .).  I put a cup of fine (Ghana style, not coarser Nigerian style) gari in a small bowl and poured the liquid over it, stirring it quickly, careful to keep it from clumping or becoming lumpy. Then I wet a small bowl and pressed the pino into it,  put a plate on top of the bowl and turned it upside down to release the molded pino. Finally, I garnished it with what I had handy: some sweet bell pepper and cherry tomatoes. Pino is similar to, but lighter than, Nigerian imoyo eba, where the gari is actually cooked and becomes much denser. Since there were only 2 of us I used only a cup of gari, but would have doubled it to serve 4 or 5 people. It only took a few minutes to prepare, and we had a lovely light dinner.

Recipe #40: Step-by-step Chichinga (Kyinkyinga/Tsire Suya)

Here are 2 versions of what is known in Ghana as chichinga (with the first "i" pronounced like the "i" in "it," and the second one like a long "ee", and the emphasis on the second syllable [chiCHINga]. It's also spelled "kyinkyinga," in which case the first "n" is silent. This popular street food, appetizer, and party snack is common throughout West Africa. In Nigeria this version of kebab is called  tsire suya (sooya), often shortened to simply suya.

Chichinga is commonly made from a variety of protein sources, such as liver or beef (more traditional),  and chicken (more contemporary), lamb,  or goat. I'm sure it would be possible to use vegetarian sources like mushrooms or tofu, as well. The distinctive touch comes from the rub, the tankora/yagi/chichinga powder, which includes roasted cornmeal, pulverized and fried and then re-ground peanuts, ginger, red pepper, salt, and other spices. Typically in Ghana the meats are quite tough and the chichinga are grilled for a long time so that they sometimes taste overcooked according to Western sensibilities.

Once you have purchased or prepared the powder, you're set to go.

Beef Chichinga (Version I) (enough for 3 people)

12 ounces tender beef [I used top round (London broil)]
bamboo skewers (NOT the long ones)
1/2 cup tankora powder

for the marinade:
1-2 teaspoons tomato paste
ground dried red pepper to taste (about 1/3-1/2 teaspoon)
~1/2 teaspoon fresh grated ginger (about 1/2 inch root, peeled)
~1/2 teaspoon fresh ground or grated or crushed garlic (about 1-2 large cloves)
about 1/4 to 1/3 onion, grated (to get 1 1/2 - 2 tablespoons)
~1 teaspoon salt or seasoned salt (like spicy adobo)
~1/2 teaspoon white or black pepper
2 teaspoons vegetable oil (I used peanut oil)

Put the skewers to soak in water at least an hour before you intend to use them (I do this for the oven when I need to broil the chichinga, but it might not be necessary on an outdoor grill). In the picture, the top shows the type of homemeade wooden skewers that are commonly used in Ghana.)

To make enough for 3 persons, use 12 ounces of tender beef with all fat trimmed off, enough to cut into about 18-21 thin strips, roughly  1/4-3/8 inches thick, and a couple of inches long and around an inch wide (you'll see both the chicken and beef strips in the picture).

Prepare the marinade and mix it together, then coat the meat evenly with it and let it sit (in the refrigerator) covered, for about half an hour or longer.

Preheat a broiler, or build a fire when you are ready to grill the chichinga. To finish the kebabs after marinating them,
put a cup of the kyinkyinga/tankora/yaji powder in a plastic or paper bag, and add about 6 pieces of the marinated meat at a time, shaking them well to coat them (in Ghana they actually coat them after they put them on the skewers, but the bag procedure works better for me. Thread 3 pieces of meat onto each skewer. Continue repeating this process untl all the meat is coated and on skewers. Do not push the meat down too tightly on the skewers.
I lightly brushed the kebabs with a little peanut oil before putting them under the broiler, turning after 5 minutes and brushing the other side lightly with oil as well, then giving them another 5 minutes or so. Since we weren't quite ready for them, I turned the broiler off and let the sit in the over for another 20 minutes or so befoe we were ready to eat.

Actually, I made 2 versions at the same time (in the picture you'll see that I had some chicken livers from the chicken that I thought about using, too, but since they would have cooked faster and I didn't want to worry about timing, I left them for another day.)

Version II (Chicken Chichinga) [also for 3 people]

This version is the identical process, but uses chicken instead of beef. Since North American chickens tend to be so soft, it is more flavorful and interesting to use a roasting (or free-range) chicken. In Ghana, I usually find the chicken version is made from white chicken breast meat, but I include a few from the darker, moister thigh meat and that works well also.

12 ounces boneless chicken (breast and/or thigh meat), cut into roughly 18-21 thin strips (as was the beef)

Follow the same procedure for marinating, coating, and grilling.

Variation: It is also possible to grill the meat directly, without using the tankora powder, but you'll be missing a treat.

Chichinga goes very well with a lager beer (like Star or Club in Ghana), or ginger beer or ginger ale or bissap.

Recipes #39 and 40: Kuli-kuli and tankora (yaji) powder/rub

 Recipe #39: Kuli-kuli (groundnut/peanut balls)

I feel pretty stupid today. After spending hours trying to use peanut butter to make my kuli-kuli (and wasting a LOT of peanut oil as they disintegrated in it), I decided to try beginning with dry roasted peanuts. I threw a cupful into my mini food processor and quickly ground them to a powder, stopping before it turned into a paste. Then I proceeded to wrap the powder in cloth, and press the oil out between 2 cutting boards (I actually put them on the floor and stomped on them). Next, I added a little hot water to allow me to mold the powder mixture into small balls (the cup of peanuts made 16 of them). I didn't add salt because the peanuts were already lightly salted. Then I deepfried them in hot peanut oil for a few minutes until they were crisp and brown on the outside. No problem. It was quick and oh-so-easy.

They're then ready to eat as a snack, or sprinkled crumbled over salads or porridges or whatever you fancy. Because I intended to crush the balls to use in my tankora powder for my chichinga (suya), I didn't add any other spices like grated onion or red pepper when I made the balls, but I could have done that, too.  I pounded the fried balls in a small marble mortar (see picture below), then pressed the pounded mixture through a medium sieve for the recipe below. I imagine it would have been easier to just use the powdered peanuts without frying or pressing them, but then, I'm a perfectionist of sorts. Do whichever you choose.

Recipe #40: Tankora Powder/Rub for Chichinga (Suya)

If you don't want to bother with the recipe below, you can make a "make-do" powder by mixing a little hot red pepper, and a little ginger and salt, and some crushed/powdered peanuts together. If you don't have a food processor, put peanuts between waxed paper or into a bag and hit them with a rolling pin, hammer, or meat tenderizer to pulverize them.

However, if you have the time, I recommend going all out. As with curry powders, you can mix and match the ingredients you happen to like. And, as with curry powders, freshly made is better.

Here's a basic recipe:

1/2 cup of powdered peanuts from kulikuli prepared above
1/4 cup of toasted corn flour (see directions below) made from 1/4 cup toasted, ground white popcorn
dried ground red pepper to taste (~ 1/4-1/2 teaspoon)
dried ground ginger to taste (~ 1/2 teaspoon)
salt to taste (if peanuts were salted, just a little, maybe 1/4 teaspoon)
other ingredients as desired (I used 1/2 teaspoon dried powdered green bell pepper, 1/4 teaspoon mace, and 1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper; others use shrimp-flavored or other seasoning cubes)

I actually made a double batch of this today so I can test it on 2 types of chichinga, one made from round steak (beef) and one from chicken breast. I'm getting ready to make the marinade for the meat now, and will grill it for dinner. I'll post the results tomorrow or the next day.

Next I prepared the other ingredients for the tankora (yaji) powder, the spice rub to use on my meat/poultry. Yesterday I dried a few rings of sweet bell pepper in a warm oven (the lowest setting on the oven for a few hours) and ground them in a coffee/spice grinder. I've only once had tankora powder with that ingredient, but I liked it. I also used mace because I had some handy. And I had no African black pepper, so I just used white pepper. I had African dried red pepper (hotter than the cayenne usually available in North American grocery stores), so I used that, along with dried ground ginger.

The toasted cornflour (the same one used to make Tom Brown porridge) was a little more of a challenge, but thanks to Dorinda Hafner's adivce in A Taste of Africa, I managed to make my own by toasting a cup of white popcorn in a preheated heavy cast iron skillet over a medium high heat, shaking it constantly for about 6 minutes until just before the kernals started popping (I quickly poured them onto a cool plate so that they didn't continue to heat and pop in the pan) and then ground them as finely as I could in my coffee grinder, pouring them through a fine tea strainer and regrinding the chaff until I had what I needed: still not quite as fine as I could have gotten in Ghana, but quite okay. I've seen people saying you can just toast  cornmeal in a dry frying pan, but, as always, I think freshly made is better. Mix all of the ingredients together.

I make this just before I need it, but I imagine it could also be stored in the freezer.

Kuli-kuli, and tankora powder, the continuing saga

When I was in Northern Ghana I watched kuli-kuli being made (and helped a very little--the women laughed at how weak my hands were when I tried to squeeze the peanut [groundnut] paste into balls) it seemed pretty straightforward. That's like saying pounding fufu correctly is easy. Not true.

I'm working on developing the recipe for tankora (or "yaji") powder. Tankora powder is a West African rub for meats, poultry, etc. that is most famously used in West African kebabs. Like curry powders, it's a blend of several dried, powdered ingredients. There are many versions, but most commonly they contain dried, powdered red pepper, ginger, some kind of black or white pepper or masoro, salt, powdered peanuts specially prepared (that's the kuli-kuli I've been trying to master), and various other spices: some call for mace, or cloves, maggi cubes, garlic, and in Ghana people commonly mix toasted corn flour into the mixture as well. One of the best kebabs (called chichinga or  tsitsinga) I had in Ghana was made from tender beef (often chichinga is made from very tough meats and quite chewy and overcooked to Western palates), and the vendor (from the North) told me he made his own tankora powder that included: white pepper, sweet green dried pepper powder (the only time I've ever heard of that in tankora or yaji powder), dried powdered ginger, ground nutmeg, Maggi and Royco shrimp seasoning cubes, salt, kulikuli, and dried red pepper.

But making the kulikuli powder: that's the problem. I admit I'm not grinding the roasted peanuts fresh, but trying to use natural style peanut butter (I've tried different brands). Getting all of the oil possible out is the first step. I tried using my hands and a little hot water like they did in Ghana, but that didn't work, so I tried using a folded cheesecloth to squeeze out the oil, but that still didn't work well enough, so I wrapped the peanut butter in dishcloths, put it between 2 cutting boards, and stomped on it. That seemed to work! I got the oil out of the peanut butter, and was able to form the balls like they did in Ghana (or so I thought). As soon as I tried to deepfry them in peanut oil they disintegrated. I tried again today, making sure I had the oil hot enough, but the same thing happened, so I decided to make the balls into patties and fry them on a nonstick griddle well greased with peanut oil, at about 350-375 degrees. That worked okay, more or less.

In Northern Ghana, they then add the salt (and maybe other spices, too?), and pound the balls again, t form them into rolled strips joined together and deepfry them again. I couldn't manage that, so just rolled them out and put them in a very low oven alongside the green pepper strips I'm drying to powder and add to my tankora powder, too.  Most of the recipes I've seen simply say to powder dry-roasted peanuts and use them that way. I don't want to cave in and do that until I have no other choice. I'll let you know tomorrow how it worked out. If the oven will dry out the "kulikuli" enough to powder it, and if I can get the sweet bell peppers dry enough to grind, tomorrow I'll see if you can really make a proper toasted cornmeal from popcorn. Keep in touch!

Recipe #38: Cocoyam (taro, mankani) chips

While we were in Brazil in 2007, one night I  made cocoyam chips  for some colleagues who were over for dinner,  and they couldn't stop raving about them. When my husband and I were (literally) poor graduate students and married in Ghana in 1972, we cooked and served these at our wedding reception, and they were cheap, but elegant.

They're a little harder to make than plantain strips because the cocoyams (aka taro, mankani) are more slippery and harder to hold to grate or slice, but it's well worth the effort.

Cocoyam chips are similar to potato chips, but the cocoyams are harder so the chips are crisper and have a different flavor, though also mild. As with plantains, the thinner you manage to cut the chips, the tastier they are. I used a vegetable peeler to peel them, and used several methods to make the chips: a box vegetable grater, a vegetable peeler, and a knife. How I wish I had a mandolin! 

Follow the same procedure for frying and draining and salting them as for green plantain chips. Delicious!

Nagaimo (Japanese mountain yam) and Okra, Cinderella of vegetables

Recently, when buying taro (cocoyams, mankani) at an Asian market, I was excited to see what looked like a long, thin-skinned, gorgeous yam, and immediately snatched some up along with the cocoyams and ginger root (much fresher and cheaper than what I can find in regular grocery stores). At the checkout counter, I was stunned to find that small yam cost about $11! When I asked the clerk what it was, she had to look it up, and told me it's very healthy, Japanese people use it, and the name is nagaimo. I did a little research and discovered that it is from the Dioscorea family (like African yams) and is known as Dioscorea opposita or D. batatas, (or: nagaimo, yamaimo (Japan), Japanese mountain yam, ma (Korea), Korean yam, glutinous yam, cinnamon vine, Chinese yam, shan yao, huai shan, or huai shan yao (China).

It is a type of yam that may be eaten raw, and it has a delicate texture and flavor. It was a treat, though slimier to peel than African yams, and worked when boiled and eaten with a stew. The price makes it a luxury I probably won't use unless absolutely necessary (or when I'm cooking Japanese food, in which case it is often grated and eaten raw and soaked or included in things like pancakes or noodles.)

Okra waiting to take its rightful place

I did not grow up eating okra. It wasn't until I lived in Ghana that I fell in love with it. In the U.S., unlike other parts of the world,  it is considered one of the least favorite vegetables, partly because of its "mucilaginous" properties (i.e., "it's slimy").  Lost Crops of Africa, vol. II on vegetables, declared okra to be a "Cinderella. . . still living on the hearth of neglect amid the ashes of scorn." (p. 287). The book lauds okra for its mind-boggling health benefits and nutrients (e.g., seeds providing excellent vegetable protein and oil with qualities similar to olive oil, rich in tryptophan and sulfer-containing amino acids, okra pods helping to lower serum cholesterol, stabilize blood sugar in diabetics (high soluble fiber), filled with vitamins and minerals. . . It is an important food crop in West Africa. There are different types of okra. In Ghana there is the familiar long slender pod, and a shorteder, fatter pod. In the North of Ghana, the pods are dried for use in soups and stews. I'll soon post a recipe for a soup using dried okra and tomatoes.

When I happened upon some lovely fresh okra in the grocery store a couple of weeks ago, I promptly brought some home, cooked part, and rinsed, then dried the rest on a cookie sheet in a very slow oven (less than 200 degrees, or a little higher than the "warm" setting) for several hours.
BTW, fresh crisp okra are to frozen okra as fresh green beans are to frozen ones.

Recipe #37: Mpotompoto: African cocoyam (taro) "goulash"

I started out confident that I could write about both nyoma and  mpotompoto.  Now I realize what I vaguely suspected before: they're the same thing. Several Ghanaians have confirmed this. Barbara Baeta once told me that when it is made with yam, the Ewes call it teba ("yam mud") and that it is also known in Ewe as dablui, which means "cook it and mix it up." Barbara describes it as a kind of Ghanaian goulash.

In Twi, poto means "to mash/grind." I love the reduplication.  However, the root vegetable used is not necessarily mashed, just cooked in broth until the  cocoyam (a kind of taro, aka dasheen, eddo),  or (African) yam or white sweet potato, or even cassava, disintegrates. Mpotompoto or nyoma is also recommended as a weaning food for young children. I find it a light, comforting one-pot meal.

There are, of course, many variations. Here is a simple one using dried ground hot red pepper, cocoyam, palm oil, salt, tomatoes and dried shrimp. Our local chain grocery stores do not carry cocoyams, but I found some beautiful ones at a nearby Asian market.

Ingredients:

about 3 cocoyams (to get a pound when peeled) [or use African yam or white sweet potato]
1 medium onion (about 4 oz)
a couple of tomatoes (about 4 oz) [NOTE: I used cherry tomatoes, since that's what I had handy]
1/4 cup dried pounded shrimps or dried herrings [OR, if you must, substitute a shrimp-flavored seasoning cube]
1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste

Pound the shrimp, if whole, in a mortar and pestle (I break off the head and end of the tail first, but that's just me)
Wash and peel the cocoyams (I use a potato peeler) and cut into1/2 inch cubes.
Peel the onion, leaving it whole.
Rinse the tomatoes, leaving them whole.

Put the diced cocoyams, whole onion and tomatoes in a small pot with 5 cups of water. Bring it to a boil, then lower the heat  and cook  until the cocoyam is soft (20-30 minutes).

Remove the tomatoes and onions (I use a slotted spoon) and grind them (I use a mini food processor or blender), then return them to the pot.
Add the pounded shrimp, salt, red pepper and about 1/4 red palm oil (or less).
Let the mixture simmer briefly to blend the flavors. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary.

Enjoy!

Another way to prepare nyoma or mpotompoto is to boil the root vegetable separately, and make a gravy with 1/2 c palm or other vegetable oil, frying the onion a few minutes, then adding sliced tomatoes (and other seasonings as desired, such as ginger, garlic, etc.), then mixing everyting together after the cocoyam, or yam, etc., is tender.

Finally, a third way to do it (and perhaps the most common) is to omit precooking the cocoyam and simply make the gravy, then add additional water and cook the cocoyam in it.

Recipe #36: Nyoma (African yam pottage/soup)

When I lived in Ghana in the 1970s my future sister-in-law Afua made a comforting one-pot dish with (African) yam called nyoma. It is quite similar to the  mpotompoto mentioned in my last posting, but I've decided to feature nyoma first. Sometimes called yam soup, it's actually more of a pottage.

When I asked about nyoma during a luncheon at Flair, a visitor, Mrs. Mabel Aboagye-Darko, told me: first, nyoma is the Akwapim Twi name (my husband from Adukrom in the Eastern Region, and speaks this version of Twi), but that Ashanti Twi speakers call it mpihu; ingredients (for the Ashanti version) include smoked dried fish (cleaned, but with the bones), whole onions, tomatoes, red chili peppers (or green kpakpo shito), salt and bushmeat. She said to peel, wash and chop the yams, and put them on the fire to cook in some water, then add all the other ingredients. When the tomatoes, peppers, and onions are soft, remove and grind them (in an asanka, I imagine) and return to the pot. To serve, remove the yams into the asanka, add a little soup and mash the yams. Finally, heat a little palm oil in a frying pan, add some chopped onions and fry together, then add to the soup and yam.

Nigerians make a similar dish, and as always, ingredients and preparation techniques vary.

Here's the version I made recently--after 4 unsuccessful weekly trips to our local supermarket to find an appropriate yam (imported from Mexico) that wasn't rotten, I finally found a small one that was okay, but not great. How I miss the African market that was here last year--Sore used to travel to New York and New Jersey to bring us fresh yams direct from Ghana!

At any rate, I used what I had on hand to go with the yam: salted herrings, local grass-fed beef, fresh habanero pepper, a yellow onion, some palm oil, and canned plum tomatoes.

Ingredients

~10 oz. stewing beef

~1 pound of yam

2-3 salted herrings (see photo)

1 large onion (~10 ounces)

1 habanero pepper (or to taste)

1 clove of garlic (optional)

1/2 teaspoon of grated ginger (optional)

a few drained peeled, canned plum tomatoes (~4 ounces)

3-4 Tablespoons palm (or other vegetable) oil

Preparations

Put the salted herrings into a small saucepan, cover them with water, and simmer them for a few minutes to remove excess saltiness.

Peel and slice the onion. Put half of the onion into a soup pot. Peel and rinse the yam, cut it into 1/2 inch cubes, and place it into the pot with about 4 cups of water (enough to cover the yam). Cut the beef into small cubes, and add them to the pot. Remove the salted fish from the saucepan, break it into pieces and add to the pot. Bring the water to a boil, then lower the heat to simmer. I don't like tomato seeds, so I forced the canned tomatoes through a strainer into the broth. (Note: Traditionally, people would just toss the whole pepper and tomato into the soup and grind them when they get soft.) Let the soup simmer until the meat and yam are tender.

While the soup is simmering, if you have a mini-food processor, grind the pepper, garlic and ginger together (or mince and grate them), then heat the palm or other vegetable oil in a small frying pan, add the remaining sliced onion and spices and fry briefly, then add them to the soup pot and let the flavors blend for a few minutes. Adjust salt and (red) pepper to taste.

This fed 3 adults (my hungry college-aged nephew, my husband, and me).

Variations:  mash the yam with a masher or spoon before serving it; add some cooked dried beans; substitute cocoyams (taro) or cassava. Has anyone ever  tried making this using potatoes?

Recipe #35: Ofam (Ripe Plantain Loaf)

With family arriving home over the holidays  I wanted to make ofam, Ghana's challenge to Western holiday fruitcakes: a rich, heavy plantain loaf made from sweet, over-ripe plantains, spices, and red palm (dende) oil. Helplessly, I waited unsuccessfully for my locally purchased plantains to turn black. Then, on  December 22nd, my daughter Abena arrived from California carrying 2 plantains perfect for the recipe, which I added to my 2 semi-ripe ones, and was able to serve this special occasion dish in time for Christmas and the New Decade!

It is not difficult to make, but does require some special items, such as the over-ripe plantains and palm oil.

Ingredients:

about 2 pounds of over-ripe (black) plantains, about 3 or 4 good sized ones

3 fresh chili peppers or to taste (I used a combination of part of each of the 3 types in the photo, seeded)

1 onion (enough to get about 1 cup of onion grated; use more or less to your taste)

fresh ginger (enought to get about 3 Tablespoons after peeling and grating it (again, adjust to taste)

up to 1 cup good-quality red palm oil (preferably zomi)

about 3/4 cup of flour (rice or wheat, or use Ghanaian corn dough)

1-2 teaspoons salt (or to taste)

Peel the plantains and mash them. If they are very ripe a fork will do fine, otherwise use a potato masher or ricer or a glass, or whatever you have handy. Traditionally they would be pounded in a wooden mortar with a wooden pestle. Remember, thought, exture is important in Ghanaian dishes, so don't do this in a blender. You want about 2 1/2 to 2 3/4 cups of well-mashed plantain.

Put the mashed plantain in a large mixing bowl and add a cup of medium to finely grated onion.

Add the ground chili peppers (I seeded the peppers and added a couple of tablespoons of water to my mini processor attachment to grind them before adding them to the bowl).

Stir the dough gently, also adding a little salt. In Ghana we used 2 teaspoons, but I used a little less because we're on low-salt diets here. It is not meant to be very salty.

Stir in 1/2 cup of the flour (if you do not have rice flour, you can always grind some rice in a blender to add it, or use wheat flour, or, if you have Ghanaian corn dough, which is much more finely ground than cornmeal, use that).

If the dough seems thin, add up to another 1/4 cup flour to make it thicker, then stir in the palm oil. I balk at using a full cup of palm oil, but used part of it with a pastry brush to grease my pan well on the bottom and sides. Let the batter rest for about 15 minutes, then scrape it into a pan and bake it about half an hour in a medium oven (350 degrees). Let it cool on a rack long enough before removing it from the pan, maybe 20 minutes or so (a little of mine stuck to the pan).

In Ghana we made our ofam in loaf pans (traditionally it used to be wrapped in leaves first). I baked mine in a nonstick bundt pan. Serve warm or cool, in small slices by itself or accompanied by dry roasted peanuts. We ate it as both a dessert and a snack, and it is now long gone until the next holiday. If you have leftover, though, it freezes nicely and is quickly defrosted and warmed in a microwave. When serving, I  blot excess palm oil off with paper towels, but that is just me--others might find that akin to scraping whipped cream or frosting off a cake.

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday and are ready for a fantastic new year. This is the year of the book! I plan to have the Ghanaian cookbook drafted by the spring. There are many recipes I've not yet had time to post, but will be diligent in the coming weeks. Next up will be another classic Ghanaian dish I love (both the food and its wonderful name: "mpotompoto," or yam soup).

Recipe #33 Aboboe and Recipe #34 Adayi (boiled and pureed cowpeas)

There is a VERY simple, everyday kind of dish that the Ewe (ey-vey) people and other Ghanaians enjoy. (The Ewe people are also found in parts of Togo and Benin.)This dish is called abob⊃e or aboboe in Twi, ab⊃b⊃i in Ga, azinogoe b⊃b⊃  in Ewe. It is also known simply as stewed beans, boiled beans or bobo. 

The "beans" are humble cowpeas (vigna unguiculata), which likely originated in West Africa. They lend themselves easily to crockpot cooking, and that is how I prepared them recently, even though in Ghana we cooked them on a stovetop. 

Recipe #33: Aboboe (boiled cowpeas)

Ingredients

2 cups (a little less than 1 pound) of black-eyed peas

about 6 cups of water

gari for serving (if available)

ripe plantain (optional)

Rinse and pick over 2 cups of black-eyed peas (or use a whole pound bag)

Put them into a crockpot with 6 cups of water.

Cover and cook for several hours on high or overnight on low.

Before serving add a couple of teaspoons of salt, or to taste. I did not have to add any more water, but it's always a good idea to keep an eye on it if you're cooking on top of the stove or on the high setting in a crockpot.

Variations: add a large onion whole, and a little red pepper (fresh or dried) to the beans as they cook.

Serving suggestions:

The beans are good simply served with a couple of tablespoons of dry gari sprinkled over the top, and even better with a little flavored oil (or good quality dzomi palm oil, if you have access to that) poured over them before sprinkling the gari, and some shito served on the side, if you have any.

Alternatively, you can make a simple tomato gravy (that recipe is coming--it can be made ahead and kept in the refrigerator) and add any leftover meat or fish or vegetable, and mix the beans with that before topping with gari.

Ripe plantain is traditionally fried and served alongside the beans, but Barbara (and I) grill or boil it and serve it that way. Totally delicious, and a nice change from chili.

Recipe #34: Adayi (Pureed Cowpeas)

In Ghana, Barbara and I didn't prepare adayi, but Barbara told me that you cook the cowpeas the same way, then when they are done and most of the water has boiled away, you simply blend the beans into a paste and eat them with gari. 

That's how I made it here, but later I was looking at the 1953 Gold Coast Nutrition and Cookery book, and saw that it has an Ewe recipe that is more complicated: first it says to soak the cowpeas ovenight (1 cigarette tin, which is 1/2 pound), dry them in the sun, grind the beans and remove the skins, cook them well in boiling water until they are soft, then add salt. The recipe then says to heat some coconut oil (1 1/2 U.K. gills, or about .9 U.S. cup), dampen some gari (2 cigarette tins, or a pound) with a little water and the heated oil, and serve it hot with the beans. I'm thinking that one could try subsituting the preskinned and/or preground beans, but the pureed, unskinned ones I made worked fine for this novice.

Have fun, and happy cooking.

 

Recipe #33: Flavored Oils AND a cooking teacher request

Flavored oils are used in Ghana as a condiment that can be drizzled over starches, stews or cooked cowpeas. It is similar to the way Fulbe cattle herders in Mauritania, Mali, and Northern Senegal use the oil butter nebam sirme. 

NOTE: Before posting today's recipe, I have had a request for information on anyone in the Philadelphia who teaches West African cooking, and in particular the cooking of Guinea-Bissau. Please share the information here or send it directly to me to forward to Joseph Dickerson.

 Recipe #33: Ghanaian Flavored Oil Sauces

This spicy condiment can be made with either a light-colored oil (like canola, safflower, or peanut), or the classic carotene-rich red palm (aka dendê) oil. It reminds me of Asian chili oil made with sesame oil (sesame is originally from Africa, by the way), but with an African touch. It is easy and quick to make, and might be just the thing for a holiday gift for that African gourmand on your list!

Ingredients

1/2 cup vegetable oil (I made 2 versions, one with palm oil    and  one with canola)
1/2 cup sliced or chopped onion
 several hot chili peppers of your choice (in Ghana we used my beloved much-missed kpakpo shito peppers)
1 teaspoon ground dried chili pepper (or to taste)
1 teaspoon freshly ground/grated peeler ginger

Gather and prepare the ingredients, washing the peppers, slicing off the stem end, then cutting them up or making slits in them. It is not necessary to remove the seeds.

Heat a small frying pan on the stove, add the oil, and a few slices of onion, shaking or stirring the pan for a few minutes. I'm not sure why they do this in Ghana, perhaps to freshen the oil. Remove the browned onion, then add the 1/2 cup sliced/coarsely chopped onion, the fresh chili peppers, ginger, and dried pepper. Simmer the mixture for about 15 minutes, pressing down on the peppers as they cook to help release their oils, and stirring occasionally.

Strain the mixture into a measuring cup or bowl. I strained it twice, once to remove the large pieces of oil, pepper, and ginger, and then a second time with a finer strainer to remove the dregs. Store in glass jars.

These oils are nice with cooked cowpeas (see my upcoming recipes for abobo and adayi), tomato gravy, shito, gari/or cooked ripe plantain slices.

Recipe #32: Papaya (pawpaw) Fool

Here's another fool (pudding) recipe from Ghana. This one uses fresh papaya rather than canned (or fresh) mango puree. I began by peeling and seeding a large ripe papaya (or, use a couple of small ones), then cut 2 cups of chunks, added them to a food processor attachment for my blender, and blended them briefly (about 30 seconds), so they were not completely pureed. Then I put them into a small saucepan with a Tablespoon of sugar and set it aside.

From that point I proceeded to prepare the custard and milk/water mix as with recipe #31, heating the papaya as I had the mango. I garnished them with what I had handy: fresh mango and papaya (pawpaw) slices. Voila! Dessert is ready in just a few minutes. Please note that this makes a fool that is much less sweet than the mango fool. If you want it sweeter, add more sugar. Conversely, if you find the mango fool (recipe #31) too sweet, use fresh mango and adjust the sugar to your taste.

This recipe makes 4 servings.

African Cooking Teachers in North America

The papaya on the counter is still hard and green, and the plantains for my holiday ofam turned woody but did not ripen, so today I'll wirte about a topic close to my heart:   

African cooking instructors

I've alluded before to some of the dvds or videos available online, such as those on Liberian cooking, or from Yeti Ezianii's Afrofood TV (see her YouTube videos). Of course, I teach African cooking classes, too (plus have a number of YouTube videos available, from making microwave fufu to moin moin, injera and doro wat, etc. These videos have multiple parts.) And there are  African cooking videos at HowCast.com.   Kunmi of Sheba foods, has dvds available on Kenyan, Nigerian, and South African cooking. Many people have posted videos on YouTube covering all aspects of African cuisine.

However, there is no substitute for having an experienced and knowledgeable teacher guide one through the process of creating authentic regional African dishes, explaining cooking techniques, correcting problems, giving tips, and walking one through the process step-by-step. I've yet to discover any comprehensive and current listing of individuals outside of Africa who teach such classes on a regular basis. Such classes are also not yet incorporated into the culinary curriculum of  North American cooking schools (I'd love to be corrected here if you know of any schools with a specific emphasis on African cuisines, and not just a brief "world cuisines" unit.)

Let's begin a list today, at the end of 2009. Since I'm in the U.S., it will start with culinary professionals  in North America who are currently available to teach. I'll be happy to update it as people send me information and links. We can move beyond N. America if people send me information.

Off hand, apart from me
Fran Osseo-Asare (fran@betumi.com)
State College, Pennsylvania U.S.A.

I recently received an email from
Nbret Aga (lovecarepacifica@yahoo.com, telephone 206-218-2833)
Des Moines, Washington, U.S.A. who teaches (among other world cuisines) Ethiopian and Eritrean cooking classes.

Ghanaian caterer and consultant 
Eva Forson of African Palava
New York City, New York has taught African cooking classes.

If you would like to be listed, or can recommend someone, please contact me.