Please stay encouraged. Things can't stay the same always!

Does anyone know a good recipe for Waakye with tomato sauce? These are the black eyed peas, cooked with some sort of special leaf. Is there a substitute here in the States for that. My husband loves this dish and I would like to make it for him.

I think you're thinking of Kontomire. Waakye is just black eyed peas with tomato sauce. but you cook them seperately and the black eyed peas end up being really dry looking when done. you eat them w/ the tomato sauce

My mother in law calls beans and rice wakye. I wonder if the word can be used for different dishes.

okay, I don't have any Ghanaian recipes and after reading this it brought back soo many memories of the different aromas and flavors. Now I'm going to cry...okay, I'm tearing already.
Moving on. I really liked the jallof rice I had, but the recipes that I've found don't have the seasonings and spices I remember. So does any one know the name of the "spices" used in authentic jallof rice. I saw a jar of it at the airport novelty store (in ghana), but the clerk wasn't available, so I could not purchase it.
And...does anyone know how to make "lyte/lite" soup? My mother in law made some and I liked about ate the whole bowl full
If y'all can give some insight, UNO thanks you in advance

All of this talk about food is making my stomach rumble. I love kenkey. Are you getting better at making it?

I am. I need to try again this weekend and get it right with measurements so that I can post it here.

I feel like I am in Chemistry lab all over again

So, being that there has been talk of food and recipes and whatnot I decided we should probably have a central place to share what we know. So come and share

I guess I will start

Here are 2 Ghanaian recipes that I have shared with others on VJ:


(1) Rice balls with peanut butter soup

• Unsalted, unsalted creamy peanut butter (organic is the best)
• water
• chicken, lamb, fish (either smoked or fried), beef, goat or a combination
• tomato (medium chopped)
• onion (medium chopped)
• corn oil (enough for stir frying)
• spinach or green beans (optional)
• salt, black pepper to taste

In one pot stir fry onions. Add whatever meat you like and tomatoes and cover. Leave over medium-low heat.

In another pot mix one part peanut butter with about 2 parts water. You don't really need to measure because you can just eyeball it. All you really want to do is add enough water so that the peanut butter becomes watery. Don't worry about adding too much water because it will just evaporate off. If you are using organic peanut butter make sure to mix the oil and peanut butter so that it is creamy before dissolving in the water. Place on high heat while stirring (or else the peanut butter will stick). When it starts steaming then lower heat to medium and continue the stirring until it starts boiling. Leave to boil for about 20 minutes on medium heat while stirring occasionally. You should start to see some of the oil from the peanut butter drift to the top.

Empty the peanut butter mixture into the pit with the meat. Stir, add spinach or green beans, cover and leave to simmer in meat sauce. Add salt and pepper to taste. I also add red pepper flakes to add a little kick to it.

For the rice: cook as you normally would. When it gets to the point when you would normally take it off the fire, start stiring it to see if it becomes sticky. If not, add a little bit of water and stir. When it is relatively stick spoon about a cup and a half into a bowl you have wetted with water (a small mixing bowl works well) and just roll the rice around until it becomes a ball.

What I would normally do is make the soup and as it is simmering I make the rice. For the soup I tend to like it thick so I leave it on the stove for some time, others like it lighter. You can add water to make the consistency lighter if you like.


(2) Plantain with bean stew

• black eyed beans (about 1 1/2 - 2 cups)
• palm oil (a lot of Chinese, Indian and African stores sell it. Most places I have seen have it imported from Ghana)
• onion (medium chopped)
• tomato (one can diced)
• meat (I normally use fried fish and chicken but you can use whatever you want)
• baking soda (1/2 tbsp)
• water (1/2 cup)
• salt, black pepper, curry powder

For the stew: stir fry onions in palm oil. Stir in tomatoes and add meat salt, pepper and curry powder. Let it simmer for a about 3-4 minutes. Wash beans (I know it says to soak but I never do because then you get more of a paste than a stew). Add water, beans and baking soda to meat mixture. Let it simmer on medium-ow heat for about 30 minutes while stirring occasionally. If it gets too thick you may need to add a little more water. When the beans start to get soft but not smushed you know it is ready. Some people like the beans a little firmer so you can judge how soft you want the beans.

For the plantians: you can either boil them or fry them, it does not really matter, just whatever you fancy. I tend to prefer boiled to fried though. You can also eat the stew over boiled rice or yams (boiled or fried). Also, this kind of stew is also very popular when eaten with Gari (Dried cassava) -- popularly known as gari and beans. It comes in baggies at most African food stoes and all you need to do is leave it to soak in some water and you eat it like couscous.

NB: you can use the same recipe for bean stew to make spinach stew which can also be eaten with plantains or over boiled rice. Just cook the meat longer (about 20 minutes), add a small can of tomato paste, add the spinach and only use 1/2 tsp of baking soda. Bean stew tends to be made more with palm oil while spinach stew can be made with palm/corn/canola/olive oil as well.

About Banku...when my husband and I make it here's our mixture...

3-4 days prior:

Take one bag of cornmeal (like the size of a bag of all-purpose flour) and mix with water in a large stew pot. consistency should be about like, mush or oatmeal. Mix the two together cover the pot and put in a cool, dark place to ferment for 3-4 days.

When we do it this way, we divide the fermented cornmeal into batches and put each batch into a plastic, grocery bag (about 4-5 cups each bag). This way, we can freeze what we won't immediately use. From one bag of cornmeal, you should get about 4-5 individual batches. Freeze the extras and use only one.

The mixture:
Take Cornmeal and put in blender and mix w/ water until liquid (not too runny)! Pour this into a separate bowl. Then you will need fresh cassava (Yuca/Blanca Cassava). Peel and chop the cassava and put into the blender. Add water and blend until liquid. The ratio of cassava liquid to cornmeal liquid is about 40(cassava):60(cornmeal). Season the mixture with salt to taste.

To actually make, you will need to continually stir and taste the mixture. Adding water as it gets thick. It's really hard to explain this step...The best way to learn is to have someone show/help you. I hope the mixture helps you get started!

Anything I can do to help

Question... For the meat for the peanut butter soup... when my mom used to make it. I use to see that she will put cow feet and goat meat in the oven for some time and it will be more crunchy and then add them in with the other meats that is already in the pot....

Should I do that for my meat or just throw all the meat... I will be using goat meat and cow feet and maybe some smoked turkey as my combination of meats for the peanut butter soup. Can I just put them all in the pot after the I fry the onions?

Every time I hear Kenkey, I remeber this little old lady walking pass my office in the Osu, North Labone area, you could hear her echos coming from far "KeeenKeeeey, keeenkeeeey" over and over again. When her voice would get close I would always run out side. Because, I knew the guying with the cooler was on her heals selling my favorite "fan-choco" in the brown and yellow bag.

Now I'm about to get upset,,, I'm having fan-choco witdrawls.

Ok, I didn't want to say this in my first post, but I brought the milk back in my luggage too!!! I thought that was strange of me, but I guess I was not the only one, lol.

I think you're thinking of Kontomire. Waakye is just black eyed peas with tomato sauce. but you cook them seperately and the black eyed peas end up being really dry looking when done. you eat them w/ the tomato sauce

You really don't need any fancy spices. Just the basics work just fine and taste good to me. Here are the basics that go in just about everything:

tomato
tomato paste
onion
garlic
all season (can be adobo or maggi cubes)
hot pepper powder
oil (can be vegetable, we use olive for health reasons)
rice

beyond that you can add anything that seems like it would taste good, e.g.:
chives
carrots
mackeral
chicken
beef
broccoli
chicken broth
peas
spagetti
ginger


Basically fry the onions first, then add the garlic, then tomatoes, then tomato paste, then seasonings, then whatever meat and additional veggies. Then add the rice and water (or chicken broth), stir and let it sit for 30min to an hour depending on what type of rice and how much you are cooking. You may also want to add some of the veggies late if you think that they are gong to overcook if they are in there for the entire time the rice is cooking.

I didn't put any measurements because we don't normally measure. You can kinda just eyeball it. If you want more detailed, I'll try to count the next time that we cook it.

Hope that helps!

Editing because I forgot that you asked about lite soup. This can be made multiple ways, but is basically just like spicy chicken soup. It's the same ingredients above except that you add more water and no rice.