The Bleached Ghanaian Cooks

I'm sure I lost my title of Bleached Ghanaian/Queen Mother (or what have you) somewhere along the way these last few years, but I'll claim it for my cooking today.

People often ask us how Ghanaian our home really is. Like, do we eat Ghanaian food all the time, carry things on our heads, decorate Afro-centric, etc. Well, the truth is, we are fairly Western, especially when it comes to food. G fell in love with American food in no time and we haven't "needed" to cook Ghanaian like I thought we would.

With that being said, he does miss local food every now and then. George's favorite thing to make (and the easiest, since we don't have to track down foreign ingredients) is Stew.

Today, I am going to surprise him and make it myself. I've had several people ask for recipes, so I'm going to share. It's super simple!

Disclaimer: I desperately want to clean up this recipe and make it more neat (as in, all one meat, or the same meat family) and healthier, but I will not! I'm making it George's way. Enjoy...

The best way to start is to open the windows, crank up some Reggae and sip on Marley's Mellow Mood Tea.

 

Cover the bottom of a dutch oven with oil (we use veg., in Ghana they use palm, but I want G to live for a very long time, so we won't be getting any). Fry up about a pound of meat. I have left over chicken and ham, so that's what I'm using. You could do any combo of chicken, pork, beef, lamb, goat or even fish (tilapia). Cook reeeeeally well-like almost burn it. :)

 

 

While it cooks, chop an onion and peppers...the amount and type is up to you. G likes everything pretty big, no fancy little pieces here! I have a medium yellow onion, two jalapenos and two habeneros (seeds too!). I also peeled 3 cloves of garlic-no chopping.

Take out the cooked meat and let it rest on paper towels to soak up extra oil.

I tried, but I couldn't help myself, I removed about half of the remaining oil. :) Throw in all the onion and peppers.

 

Cook down until it looks like this...

 

Add 1 can of tomato paste, 1 large can of diced tomatoes, 1/2 a large can of tomato sauce (save the rest, you may need it) and 1-2 cubes of bouillon. We use this....yep, it's beef, that's 3rd meat for one recipe. Any kind you have is fine.

 

It should look something like this.

 

Let it simmer and cook down for at least an hour (or all day), it should darken a bit in color. Make white rice while you wait (8-12 cups for this much stew).

When it looks right, taste it. Add hot sauce (siracha in this house) to taste and more tomato sauce if it's too thick for your liking.

Serve over rice and with what should be Star Beer...Carona is good too. :)