Nkatie (peanut) "cakes": easy sweet snack

You'll find a photo of these on the cover of The Ghana Cookbook (with instructions on making them and coconut cakes, too, inside). 

They're quick and easy to whip up from peanuts, a little water, and sugar. Here's a 27-second preview.

No budget. No publisher. No photographer. No problem!

I am humbled and excited right now, and want to share a bit of the story behind The Ghana Cookbook. I hope it will encourage you.

For years, publishers and agents told me "there's just no market for a sub-Saharan Africa single-country cookbook. Why don't you do a regional Africa cookbook instead?" For years I declined. A writer friend warned me "No agent will pick up a book like that that no one will buy."

I kept saying  "that's like doing a regional "Europe" cookbook, or a regional "Asia" cookbook, and lumping Italian, French, German, British, Dutch, Spanish, etc. together, or Chinese, Indian, Thai, Japanese, Korean, etc. all together.

Finally, I started the cookbook myself.  Proposals came back, rejected. "There's no market." I didn't give up. I kept working. I learned to photograph food. I kept writing and speaking. I kept blogging. Along the way, many of you found me and urged me on. New African culinary voices arose. The International Association of Culinary Professionals gave me a boost with a pre-contract grant to pursue my dream. Barbara Baeta in Ghana joined the project. We kept working, fueled by belief and love that someday its time would come.

Finally, in 2014, visionary Priti Chitnis Gress at Hippocrene Books decided to take a chance.

Let's all prove those gatekeepers were wrong--may this cookbook open the floodgates to a realization of the vastness and variety of this huge second-largest continent, with over 4 dozen countries, and the culinary riches it has to share.

Incidentally, "betumi" comes from the Akan word "tumi," meaning the ability to do

something. It alludes to a kind of power that comes from the concentration of ability, the way strands come together to make a broom or a rope strong. To my thinking, "betumi" means "we can do it."

(p. s. please remember these photos are copyrighted.)

Cookbook Update: From then to now

Fran & Kwadwo 1972

Cookbook update: Yay! Friends, it's finally happening. We're just days away from The Ghana Cookbook's  release. Thank you to everyone who has pre-ordered. (Note: Hippocrene increased the size of the  print run given the enthusiasm and advance orders.) Here's a link to more information from the publisher (it should be in stores by Nov. 9, 2015).

All remains a labor of love on my part, and many, many hours of work, which is why I've basically ceased blogging these past months.
   
Projects currently underway:

• Updating BETUMI's website (a long-overdue project)
• A trailer for The Ghana Cookbook (stay tuned)
• Events, articles, and signings to be arranged. Already planned:
• November 13, 2015: cooking demonstration and luncheon at New Leaf Initiative in State College using recipes from the book. 
• January 28, 2016:  Accra, Ghana. Book launching at Flair Catering (with Barbara!) Hopefully, events will also take place in the San Francisco Bay Area, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Portland, Oregon.

 A team at Penn State's Happy Valley Communications (HVC) is helping to get the word out, and has set up a twitter account to help with the countdown and offer tantalizing tidbits to whet your appetite for the book.  HVC is also working with me on an instagram site called The Ghana Cookbook. I'll update folks here as things roll out.

Many of you know one of my favorite sayings from Ghana that has long been my mantra:
"Little, by little, the chicken drinks water." 

The family keeps growing

The Ghana Cookbook pre-order prices: Amazon vs. Barnes and Noble

Friends: I just noticed that while Amazon.com in the U.S. offers a descriptive blurb about The Ghana Cookbook and pre-order prices of $16.57 (a 17% discount),  Barnes and Noble online is offering pre-orders of The Ghana Cookbook for $14.95 (a 25% discount). 

If you plan to buy a copy, please be advised that this first issue (due out in early October) will be a small print run. If you want to be sure to get a copy, consider getting your order in sooner rather than later. (This could make a great hostess, Christmas, or Kwanzaa gift for someone special on your list.)


Coming soon: a recipe that will not be in the cookbook: benisi from northern Ghana. It uses shea butter and young black-eyed pea leaves. Does anyone know where I might find some of these leaves, fresh and tender, in central Pennsylvania? Otherwise, I will substitute baby spinach leaves.

Pierre Thiam on the move in Lagos

I cringe every time I am offered ice cream in Ghana that is flavored by strawberries or cherries or other imported ingredients. Some day West Africans will favor locally available ingredients to make delicious indigenous versions. In Northern Ghana an entrepreneur once enthused to me about her corn-flavored ice cream.

That day may be coming sooner rather than later in Lagos, Nigeria, where coconut and lime-flavored ice cream is planned for the menu of the the fabulous Lagos center designed by famed British-Ghanaian architect David Adjaye.

Anyone who cares about African cuisine knows (or should know) about Senegalese chef and cultural ambassador  Pierre Thiam, the former owner of Yolele and Le Grand Dakar restaurants and author of 2 Senegalese cookbooks. He's recently been in the news as the culinary force behind the recipes to be served at a new luxurious Lagos, Nigeria, store and restaurant . I'm happy to know about this new venture and wish them wonderful success.

So Much Fun. . .Akpabli's Tickling the Ghanaian

Earlier this year I discovered Accra-based writer Kofi Akpabli's slim but delightful book of humorous essays: Tickling the Ghanaian: Encounters with Contemporary Culture. A fun book featuring an insider's accurate and hilarious musings targeting the food and culture of my favorite African country. 

I especially like "The Truth About Fufu," "Between Tinapa and Boflot," and, of course, "The Serious Business of Soup in Ghana." However, he also covers cloth and clothes, rings, akpeteshi and schnapps, bartering, the Black Stars, kokonte, funerals, Nigerian-Ghanaian relations, and other topics with wit and veracity.

It's a kindle bargain at Amazon.com. Apparently, Kofi Akpabli, was selected as a CNN/Multichoice African Journalist for Arts and Culture in 2010 and 2011, and is  well known for his "useful humour, rooted in truth." A great gift for anyone who knows Ghanaians, plans to visit, or just in need of a refreshing read.

Stewed bambara beans and tatale anyone?

Have you ever had Ghana-style stewed bambara beans or groundnuts (aka aboboe)? The photo shows the dried uncooked beans/peas on the left and the cooked ones on the right. They're wonderful with ripe plantain pancakes (tatale) or fried plantain balls (kakro). And a cinch to make in a slow cooker/crockpot.

Incidentally, there is also an extensive description of bambara beans in Lost Crops of Africa: Volume II: Vegetables . Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, 2006, p. 52-73 (this can be downloaded free as a pdf if you sign up at their website.) Native to West Africa, these legumes are similar to "peanuts" in that they ripen in pods underground, and are valuable for their hardiness in tropical Africa and their high protein content. They have a mild flavor that pairs very well with sweet, ripe, spicy plantain pancakes or plantain balls, and, incidentally, are one of the few savory dishes to which I have seen some Ghanaians add sugar when eating.

Apologies for the long silence at this end. Working to complete the final edits on The Ghana Cookbook (where you'll find all three recipes). Stay tuned. (By the way, if you preorder the book from Amazon,now (it's due out in October)  there's a sizable discount ($16.57 rather than $19.95).

Making Palm Butter or Cream of Palm Fruit

A few days ago another cluster of palm nuts ripened on the tree in our yard in Tema. When they are bright orange-red, they are ready to be harvested. While extracting the palm butter/cream of palm fruit from them I realized that many North Americans have probably never seen the process:      After using a cutlass to cut the palm nuts off the tree, one whacks the cluster to loosen the actual fruits before collecting them in a bowl or basket. If the fruit is not quite ripe it may be necessary to carefully pick some of the fruits off individually. Next, the nuts are placed in a large pot, covered with water that is brought to a boil, and boiled to loosen the skins and fiber. The fruits turn a little darker as they cook. I boiled mine for about 20 to 30 minutes.

 After removing them from the water they are placed in a specially shaped wooden mortar and pounded with a wooden pestle to loosen the skin and fiber from the nuts. I pounded mine in 2 batches for about 10 to 15 minutes each. Then, everything is poured into a large pot or bowl, and enough warm water is added to allow one to loosen the fibers by hand from the kernel (by the way, it's the palm kernel oil that has the really bad rep, not the red carotene-rich palm oil, aka dendê in Brazil). 

Eventually everything is strained once or twice to remove the kernels, skin and fibers, leaving only the pulp and oil. The texture is kind of like pureed pumpkin. This is a somewhat messy job, and one needs to be careful to avoid getting the bright orange-red oil on one's clothes. Below is an awkward picture of me holding the camera with my right hand as I pound with my left, and a very brief video clip.

Reflections on the time in Ghana

It's hard to believe that our almost 3 months in Ghana are drawing to a close. 
The time here has been a collage of memories: from the soothing beach at Accra to the massive recycling/scrap/toxic site at Agbgbloshie (and a painful memory of tear gas and brute force and inhumane treatment of the immigrant workers there). From the lovely tree-studded campus at the University of Ghana, Legon, to our emerging home at Tema. From days without electricity to the installation of solar panels and an inverter.

Here are just an eclectic few of my "Lessons learned": 

1.  I prefer mosquitoes and sweating to snow and ice.
2.  Things move much more slowly and with a lot more "hiccups" than American me wants them to (though this does cause me to reflect a bit on the frenzied pace of life in the U.S. and my inordinate dependence on electronic media).
3.  Schools in Ghana still reward memorization and obedience over critical thinking and creativity. 
4. Ghanaians still seem to suffer from an identity crisis: their models in most areas of life, from food to hairstyles to architecture, seem based on the Americas or Asia rather than emerging from their indigenous societies.
5. There are many signs of hope springing up (e.g., the African "maker movement," sustainable agriculture and improved hygiene efforts, and a number of  true Ghanaian entrepreneurs)
6. There's still a long way to go to overcome the lack of a maintenance culture, and to improve customer service.
7. An especially painful lesson: don't forget to back up your photos on your new phone or you'll kick yourself when you lose it in a taxi and all those photos are gone, gone, gone. . .

 

Happy Ghana Independence Day

Today is March 6, Ghana's 58th year Independence Day. Air force planes have been flying overhead in  formation all week getting ready for the parades and festive activities. We are hoping the rain stays away this afternoon.

We have been here 4 weeks tomorrow.

Recent highlights include:

• lunching and catching up with Barbara Baeta at her house (and learning that in 2011 she was honored with the Order of the Volta, one of Ghana's highest honors for service to the nation)  
• a guest lecture in husband's professional development class for materials science students (mostly tips on better writing) to final year undergraduate students at the University of Ghana, Legon
• initial inroads on turning the house near Community 18 (Baatsona) into a home (e.g., moving some of the seedlings there for the kitchen garden, buying water tanks, commissioning  local terracotta tiles for the kitchen floor . . .)
• beginning  revisions to the cookbook (tick, tock--the end of March is getting closer)

The next big event is this weekend's activities celebrating my husband's high school alma mater, Achimota School, reunion and "Founders Day." It kicks off tonight (Friday) with a bonfire, followed by cultural activities tomorrow morning (and husband's speech on behalf of the class of 1965), with a church service Sunday. 

 

seeds and dietary trends

Today marks 2 weeks in Ghana. Still at the guest house in Legon, but plan to go by the house in Baatsona (near Tema) this afternoon. It’s taken this long to get oriented and over jet lag. 

Last week I spoke to my cookbook collaborator Barbara Baëta and we plan to meet this coming week. Also, started reading an interesting article in The Lancet, a respected online journal, on evaluating trends in global dietary patterns. Ghanaians are thrilled to claim that in it Ghana’s foods are listed as the 6th best in the world. Will study the article for answers to the many questions in my head and share my reactions.

I'm to give a guest lecture at the University of Ghana on Wednesday, and have started some seeds to plant at the house. Looking forward to an herb garden mixing seeds from both my worlds (Ghana and the U.S.), along with fruits and vegetables. The rainy season is just beginning.

Met up briefly with a young woman, Dziffa Ametam, visiting here from New York for a number of months. She's advising and interviewing young Ghanaian entrepreneurs. This includes those setting up an organic produce delivery service (sounds similar to Freshly's Farms) called "Just Fresh" in Osu, one of the projects supported by the AKO Foundation. It’s very refreshing to see the energy and enthusiasm among the youth and their dreams and plans, especially in the area of sustainable and local agriculture and entrepreneurship.

Well, the power is off again, and I need to conserve my computer power. Will check in again soon. Still not missing the snow and cold in Pennsylvania.

Ah, Ghana--Shito and "Dumsor"

We're beginning to fill our Ghanaian pantry, slowly. It's

great to be away from the snow and ice of Pennsylvania, but the downside is that of the first 6 days we were here, the power was off 2 of tthem. It's known locally as "dumsor" "on/off," perhaps a Ga word [Correction: I was just informed "dum" is an Akan word meaning "off," and "sor" means "on"], and is slated to become one of the big political issues for the next campaign. It's unpredictable and very frustrating to folks.

I'm temporarily  staying at the University of Ghana, Legon campus, before heading out to the house near Tema. 

Yesterday my favorite fashion designer, Abammaku, took measurements for a new outfit, and also sold me some of her famous canned shito (or "shittor"). My husband and I also enjoyed her pineapple ginger drink, and carried home some of her locally bottled sobolo (aka bissap, or hibiscus drink).

It's good to be back.

Heading to Ghana for 3 months

It has been strangely quiet at BetumiBlog this fall and winter. Partly because of travel,  partly due to weather and travel preparations. All that changes in a few days as I head to Ghana on February 7, 2015, staying through the end of April.  I'll be bouncing around various places, working on edits and photographs for The Ghana Cookbook, and working with son DK on our house near Tema. Plus, I'm considering offering some custom cooking classes and exploring a line of  "made in Ghana" items,  (following up on my initial Ghana wear idea in 2013) perhaps expanding to stirring sticks, asankas, etc., for those outside of Ghana.

I understand there are serious power, water, and sanitation issues in Ghana these days,  and I'll be sharing my experiences. I hope to meet up with folks from the Ghana Chef's Association, founders of the exciting entrepreneurial venture Freshly's Farms
and a host of others. 

Check back soon for updates.

Coming soon: The Ghana Cookbook

News flash--our forthcoming book is now listed on Amazon! The cover features some of my Ghana photography. Still lots of editing and finalizing, but please stay tuned. It should be out in time for your holiday giving next October. Kudos to Hippocrene for their lovely design.

Investigating Traditional Basotho Breads

 

Wheat is expensive and often imported into sub-Saharan African countries, where it is
generally the preferred ingredient in baked or steamed breads. It is often in competition with other more traditional ingredients, such as sorghum and maize.

In 2014 I had the privilege of participating in the thesis defense of another young African woman scholar, Pulane Nkhabutlane, who set out to investigate and document  the culinary practices and consumer preferences regarding traditional Basotho bread. She  sampled villages in 5 rural districts in Lesotho, a small country in southern Africa completely embedded within S. Africa.

(photo from  http://bit.ly/1IpV5yw)

A consumer science doctoral student at the University of Pretoria, Dr. Nkhabutlane's pioneering doctoral research was, like Rose Omari's, by necessity largely exploratory and descriptive.  There were 3 main phases of her research: 

• First, to identify and describe the different traditional breads in Lesotho, to investigate the past and present culinary practices related to them, to understand the factors influencing consumers' perceptions and consumption patterns, and to identify how Basotho culture impacts traditional bread acceptance. She considered ingredients, cooking methods, and social and economic variables (e.g., age, gender, and rural-urban differences)
•  The second phase included a more technical analysis to standardize the recipes, considering regional variation, and to identify the nutritional value (macronutrients, fatty acids, vitamins, and minerals) and yields.
• Finally, to characterize selected traditional Basotho breads. This section included identifying sensory characteristics like texture, volume, and color, and the contributions of wheat, maize and sorghum flour to these. Also, to investigate and determine the contribution of sourdough in the bread doughs (pH and total titratable acidity).

The thesis was another fascinating contribution to filling in the hole in contemporary sub-Saharan African culinary research. It also suggests a number of policy recommendations, such as campaigns to improve nutrition and food security and a greater appreciation of the strengths of the culinary heritage of sub-Saharan Africa. 

It is exciting to observe a new generation of African scholars taking hold of their own research agendas. It also gladdens my heart that there is a generation of African fathers and husbands who are willing to support their wives to enable them to make contributions to the development of their continent, even at a personal cost to themselves. 

The full title of Dr. Nkhabutlane's thesis is: "An Investigation of Basotho Culinary Practices and Consumer Acceptance of Basotho Traditional Bread."

Some of her work has already been published: P. Nkhabutlane, G. E. du Rand, and H. L, de Kock, "Quality characterization of wheat, maize and sorghum steamed breads from Lesotho" Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, Volume 94, Issue 10, pages 2104–2117, August 2014.

Urban Food Provisioning in Ghana: Fast Food Restaurants

As 2014 draws to a close, I have returned to my desk in Pennsylvania, USA, after several
months away. A recent trip was to the Netherlands, specifically to Wageningen University, where I was pleased to be on the examining committee during Rose Omari's doctoral defense. I first met Dr. Omari when she was a student and working at the Science and Technology Policy Research Institute in Accra during a research trip to Ghana in 2010, and it is encouraging to see another young African scholar tackling some of the gaps in African culinary research. Originally trained as a food scientist, Dr. Omari transitioned into the social sciences with her doctoral research.

Intrigued by the rapid emergence of an urban social phenomenon in Ghana, the "fast-food restaurant," she wanted to use the Accra Metropolitan Area to answer basic what, why, where and when questions, and to try to make sense of it. She wanted to use a Ghanaian perspective rather than simply adopt Western models. Prof. Dr. E. O. Sakyi-Dawson, from the University of Ghana, was another of her examiners. The research is fascinating and likely to inspire further efforts. Besides doing a fine job of description, she sought to cast a wide interdisciplinary net to analyze the phenomenon considering the interacting and contradictory dimensions of social identity,  convenience, and sense of consumer responsibility.

The thesis title is: Fast Food in Ghana's Restaurants: Prevalence, Characteristics, and Relevance--An Interdisciplinary Perspective. One paper rising from the research has already been published, and several more are already submitted/accepted:

Omari, R., Jongerden, J. P., Essegbey, G. Frempong, G., and Ruivenkamp, G. T. P. (2014) Fast food in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana: Characteristics, availability and the cuisine concept. Food Studies 1 (4):29-44.

Omari R., Essegbey G. and Ruivenkamp G. (2014) Barriers to the use of locally produced food products in Ghanaian restaurants: Opportunities for investments [Accepted for publication in Journal of Scientific Research and Reports]

Dr. Omari is married and has children. From personal experience I know that a woman's academic road in that case can be a long and challenging one, requiring intense commitment and persistence, and the sustained love and support of one's spouse, family, and friends. Clearly, Dr. Omari received that. Well done!

Help with Nigerian snack name

It's October and I'm in Austin, Texas, visiting family. Daughter Abena just gave me a snack (grain? seed?) she bought at a Nigerian store. It  looks like barley or buckwheat, or a fat kind of rice. Can any of you tell me what it's from, and its name--English, indigenous, and/or scientific? Also, any more information about how it's prepared and eaten is welcome. As always, thank you.

A Giant Step Forward

I trust I have not completely slipped off everyone's radar. The good news: the Ghana food and culture book manuscript was sent off on August 30, 2014, as promised.

The next step is sorting through hundreds of high resolution photos to select some for Hippocrene to consider as possible illustrations. (As the photo below shows, I am a "floor filer.")

It feels great to see some light ahead. Again, thank you to everyone who assisted in testing recipes and giving me helpful feedback. 

Now there is quite a bit of "catch up" to do as well.
For anyone in the State College, PA area, I will be giving a presentation at Foxdale Village,
500 East Marylyn Avenue, State College, PA 16801 this Thursday evening, September 11, at 7 p.m. (If you come by 6:30 p.m. you can also help prepare atwemo, (a deep-fried, slightly sweet cookie/biscuit). The event is free and open to the public. During the presentation,  also sample plantain chips and bissap (hibiscus iced tea) prepared by Executive Chef Jeffrey Boggle and his staff. The talk will include some of the story behind my love affair with Ghana's food, as well as information about its vibrant food and culture.

Also, next year be prepared to see sub-Saharan Africa represented in the 2015 upcoming Oxford Companion to Sweets, edited by Darra Goldstein!

Summer flew past without a break, so several trips are on the immediate horizon (Texas, Oregon, and California), but I will be weighing in here as well.

Working on the book: "little by little, the chicken drinks water"

Hello, friends. Yes, it has been almost 3 months since a posting here. Let me assure you that I am alive and well. The final draft of our book  (tentatively titled "The Good Soup Comes From the Good Earth: Regional Cooking of Ghana") is due at the publishers at the end of the summer, along with photos. That is a full-time project (note  the 6 binders and file box!), taking every spare moment. As soon as the manuscript is on its way to Hippocrene Press, I will be back at the blog with renewed energy.

Though I am writing alone, many of you have offered assistance with testing the recipes--please know how much that is appreciated, and how helpful the feedback has been. Student interns from Penn State and elsewhere are helping manage that whole process to leave me free to work. To see photos as they are taken by some of the testers, see http://www.pinterest.com/afculnet/recipe-testing-for-ghana-regional-cookbook/

Once again, thank you, thank you, thank you. It is sometimes a lonely road, and it is tremendously encouraging to have a community of supporters out there cheering me on.--Fran Osseo-Asare

More thoughts on snacking on toasted corn

The consensus was that  the crunchy version of toasted corn from yesterday's posting was a bit hard to chew. Since there was no dried hominy corn available,  I decided to experiment with canned white hominy today. After draining off the water, I dry roasted it in a
heavy cast iron frying pan on a low heat, stirring regularly. After half an hour, even though the water had cooked away, the corn did not look toasted, so I added a little bit of oil (no more than a teaspoon) to a second pan, turned the heat to medium, and put half the corn from the dry frying pan into the second pan. Almost immediately the corn began to sizzle and jump around, and I needed to put a lid on it. I shook the pan on medium heat for about 15 minutes, lifting the lid occasionally to let the steam escape, then uncovered it and turned off the heat.

The result of both batches was tasty, though pretty far removed from the Ghanaian version: the corn was chewy, with the version cooked in a little oil (on the left above ) a bit more crispy and browned. Both were much easier on the teeth.