Ghanaian Food by Erin Metz

Erin Metz's (e-metz@northwestern.edu) report:
(Graduate Student Northwestern)

- Posted on LTHForum.com 8.6.06

I have spent about 2 years off and on living in Ghana. I have lived in each of the three major cities (The capital Accra on the coast, the colonial capital of Cape Coast in Fantiland, and the pre-colonial capital Kumasi in Asanteland) as well as some time in a coastal fishing village. I was immediately addicted to the food, and now regularly prepare ghanaian dishes in my own home, or go out to eat with friends when I have a taste for the more difficult dishes.

Gary Fine has discussed an outing to a Ghanaian restaurant, and I would gladly accompany anyone out to the Ghanaian restaurant to sample a variety of dishes. You can reach me at e-metz@northwestern.edu

The vast majority of food in Ghana is prepared at home through very labor intensive processes. For example, traditional fufu is pounded rhythmically by hand for 30-40 minutes with a wooden pestle as tall as the cook and weighing approximately 10-12 pounds. Likewise, preparing the tomato, pepper and onion "gravy" that is the base of many dishes requires frying the ingredients in palm oil for several hours.

WHERE TO GO:
For an upscale option (where you will find mostly white clientele and decor that is more "american view of africa" than authentic african aesthetic) try Ofie (oh-fee-AY). Twi for "Home" this restaurant has both Nigerian and Ghanaian dishes. In truth it depends largely on which chef is in the kitchen the day you come. On a good day this restaurant has the best groundnut soup I have ever had.

For an experience like that you could find on the streets of Ghana, head to Chicago's northside Wilson Street neighborhood to the Palace Gate Restaurant. The kitchen is teeming with women chatting away in Twi. Ghanaian men flock in around lunchtime during the workweek, young folks fill the restaurant on friday and saturday nights, and sunday afternoon is the best time to catch the family crowd as families stop by for lunch after church. The atmosphere and preparation of the dishes here is precisely what you would find on the streets of Ghana. While many of the dishes are quite good, they would not necessarily be the best I have ever had. The best nkatsikwan in the world belongs to a woman with a roadside stand on Cantoments road in Accra. For twenty US cents you can get the best lunch of your life.

The menu at Palace Gate has no prices, which is a typically Ghana thing to do. If you were on the streets in Ghana, you would order the volume of your lunch in terms of the price. Instead of a small medium or large bowl of soup for a set price, you would tell the woman you'd like "2000 cedis (ghanaian currency) of nkatiekwan" and she would fill your bowl accordingly. At palace gate everything costs $8 as far as I can tell.

Other restaurants are emerging in the area, and there are several on the south side that I have not had the chance to try yet.

*IMPORTANT* people with shellfish allergies should be extremely cautious. Many dishes are prepared with a mix of dried salted fish or shrimp as a flavoring agent. Shito, a spicy pepper condiment, is also often prepared with ground dried salted shrimp as a base; if shito is then, in turn, used to prepare your food, you may be eating shrimp without knowing it.

Note also that almost nothing is prepared fully vegetarian. At best you can hope that when they scoop out your serving of soup, none of the meat from the pot winds up in your bowl. Even in ostensibly vegetarian dishes, Ghanaians have a way of sneaking meat in (see the Bean Stew entry). If it is very important to you, ask specific, clear questions about the food preparation. If you are a strict vegan you may have to prepare it yourself.

THE PRACTICE OF EATING
All Ghanaian food can be eaten with the hands, and very often is, although sit-down restaurants will often offer utensils as well. Food is only eaten with the right hand. As in many cultures, the left hand is considered a dirty hand used only for personal hiegene, and is never used for eating or social interaction (handing money, touching another, pointing etc). Hands are washed at the table in a bowl of water both before and after a meal.

Drinks are rarely consumed with a meal, although this is also changing in the capital city. Although food stands sell both coca-cola and food, you will rarely see a Ghanaian enjoying a coke with his lunch. Drinks such as coca-cola and maltas are enjoyed as a snack, a sort of liquid food. Guinness Malta (a non alcoholic malt beverage) is marketed as a “food drink” that is ideal for school children to take as an afternoon snack.

Eating is almost exclusively done in areas reserved for eating; eating while walking on the street is almost unheard of, although the practice happens occasionally in the capital city. Meals are traditionally communal, and strangers who see you eating may ask “watome?” meaning, “am I invited [to join you]?” It is not uncommon to be invited to eat by a stranger who will insist you sit down and share their bowl of gari.

THE BASICS
The canon of Ghanaian food involves the combination of a starch and a stew of some kind. While some dishes don’t fit into this mold (spicy kebabs or grilled ocean fish for example) this covers the vast majority of dishes. The list included here is not exhaustive, but will cover the vast majority of typical dishes.

Starches vary along a continuum of fermentation. In theory any starch can be combined with any stew, but there are classical combinations. What ghanaians call "stew" or "gravy" is a thick, brick red colored paste. Red onions, fresh tomatoes, and canned tomato paste are blended to an even consistency along with a desired amount of "papashito" or scotch bonnet peppers. This is then fried in palm oil (immigrants often use vegetable oil or even olive oil when the deep red palm oil is unavailable) until the red of the tomatoes has changed from true red to deep brick red, modifying and deepening the tomato flavor. Throughout the descriptions of the food I will call this mixture "gravy"

STARCHES
The typical starches vary by texture and fermentation. These are presented roughly from softest to firmest (correspondingly from least to most fermented).

Not Fermented:
Ghanaian Yam: Typically served with palava sauce in "ampesi" (ahm-pay-SEE) this ghanaian tuber's white flesh is cut into circles the size of one's palm and boiled. The finished texture, however, more closely resembles the flakiness of a baked potato. The taste is very light.

Gari: small bead-like grains, it is served lightly moistened and often with just shito sauce. The taste of gari alone is very mild. The fluffy grains are mashed together by the hand while eating and rolled into small balls or logs in the hand before dipping in sauce and eating. Very similar to couscous in appearance.

Fried Plantain: Typically served with bean stew in "RedRed." Plantains are allowed to ripen until the peel is soft and red or blackened. These soft red plantains are then sliced diagonally and friend in vegetable oil unseasoned. These are almost exclusively served with bean stew, although occasionally also served with palava sauce. They may also accompany a meal as a side dish.

Smaller hunks of ripened plantain may also be seasoned with a combination of spices (secret to each cook) including ginger and sold alone as a snack called "kelewele" (KEH-leh-well-ay)

Rice Balls aka Emutuo (em-oo-two-WOO): These are served almost exclusively with Palm Nut soup. They are made from white rice which is boiled which stirred and mashed continuously until it forms an almost smooth paste, and then shaped into egg-shaped balls approximately 2 inches tall. The taste is much like regular white rice, but the consistency is somewhat sticky.

Fufu (foo-FOO): Fufu is typically served with the Ghanaian soups—Light soup, nkatsiekwan or palm nut. It is sometimes also served with nkrumakwan (okra stew). Traditional fufu is pounded yam and cassava (Latin American countries call this tuber ‘Yuca’). The mixture is pounded for hours to make it digestible. It is also pounded in a specific wooden mortar and pestle, ranging in height from about 5 feet to 20 feet (for commercial food stands), the mortar and pestle are made only from two specific trees native to Ghana, always found growing near one another and known as “husband and wife trees.”

The resulting texture of traditional fufu is soft and very chewy. Do not make the mistake of trying to chew and then swallow fufu, you will find yourself still chewing the same piece 30 minutes later. Traditionally made fufu is simply dipped in soup and swallowed whole. The mouth-feel is something like chewing gum (which every child has tried swallowing at least once). The taste is very light and subtle. Fufu served in the United States is often prepared from a powdered mix and lacks the chewiness of traditional fufu. With this American fufu it is possible to chew and swallow the fufu rather than swallowing whole.

Fufu is a very popular dish among low income Ghanaians; because it is difficult to digest, a serving of fufu can make you feel full for up to 24 hours. I myself ate a ball the size of my fist for dinner and was not hungry again until dinner the following day. For a Ghanaian, a ball the size of one’s fist would only be considered a half- or quarter-sized portion.

Fermented:

Banku (bahn-KUU): like fufu, banku is served in a ball, however it is not pounded. The base for banku is fermented corn mixted with another Ghanaian starch. The flavor is very similar to that of injera (an Ethiopian bread) or somewhat more distantly similar to sourdough bread. The texture, however, is more like raw cookie dough. Banku is often served in soup (such as nkrumakwan or nkatsiekwan), but may also be served along grilled ocean fish such as tilapia.

Kenkey (keng-KAY): Kenkey is also based in fermented corn, however it is formed into a ball and wrapped in leaves and let to ferment for longer than banku. The result is more firm than banku but also with a much stronger, more distinctly fermented taste than banku. Kenkey is often served as an accompaniment to fish or meats with a side of gravy. By contrast to fufu and banku, kenkey almost never served in soup.

SOUPS/STEWS:

Shito: While Mexico has its salsa and the US has ketchup, Shito is the ever-present Ghanaian condiment. Each household has its own recipe with one or two secret ingredients, but it is essentially hot peppers ground and friend until blackened. It can vary in the intensity of the heat from spicy to unbearable, so always be careful to try a little first. Many households use salted dried fish or shrimp as part of their recipe, so these versions of shito will have a marked fishy aftertaste.

Red stew: the most basic of stews, this is gravy with the addition of some vegetables, often green pepper, carrots, and green beans, although this varies depending on what is in season.

Palava sauce: Made from a base of gravy with the addition of chopped onion, scrambled egg, and a Ghanaian leafy green very similar to spinach. The inclusion of tomato seems to differentiate the Ghanaian and Nigerian versions of this dish. It is flavorful, but not as strongly flavored as bean stew. Typically served with boiled yam.

Bean stew: This is a great beginners dish. Black eyed peas are added to a healthy amount of gravy. It can vary from subtly to strongly spicy, depending on how much shito was used to make the gravy. Typically served with friend plantain in a dish known as “RedRed.” The beans may sometimes also be made with canned ground beef, depending largely on whether the cook likes to use the canned ground beef to make her gravy. Because the small hunks of beef can somewhat disappear into the dish, be sure to ask if you are a vegetarian.

Light soup: functionally this is the Ghanaian version of Chicken Noodle soup. It is served to those who are feeling ill, particularly if you are congested. It is essentially a combination of water and spicy pepper, with a bit of chicken broth. It is very very spicy, but will drain your sinuses instantly.

Nkatsiekwan (nn-kah-tsie-KWAN): This is a thick peanut soup, seasoned with onion, broth (typically chicken, beef, or seafood), and pepper. It is often prepared with a variety of meats in the pot (chicken, fish, beef), although some cooks may prepare it with only one type of meat in the pot. Some cooks use gravy as a base, although others omit the tomato. This soup may be prepared mild or somewhat peppery, depending on the cook and the day.

Nkrumahkwan (nn-crew-muh-KWAN): This is okra stew. Fresh okra is finely chopped and boiled until the soup thickens and then seasoned. Some cooks prepare the stew with secret pebbles in the bottom of the pot while boiling the okra to help make the okra more digestible and cut down on gas. Often nkrumahkwan has a very subtle taste, dominated by the okra. When done very well a slight chicken or seafood broth taste balances the okra. This soup is not spicy.

Many beginners find the slime-like texture difficult to enjoy. If this is your first time trying nkrumahkwan, you may ask the cook to add one ladle of nkatsiekwan to your bowl; the peanut soup will help cut the slimey texture of the okra stew. The best okra stew I have ever had is served just outside the main marketplace in Accra.

Palm Nut Soup: This is often prepared only weekly, because the preparation is laborious. It is most often served on Sundays. This is a thick soup with an almost creamy appearance (although no cream is used). It is made from pounding and boiling the fruit of the African palm tree. These “nuts” look like Halloween candy corn 3” tall and 2” wide. They grow on the trees in clusters.

If this is your first time, try:
Banku and Nkatsiekwan
Fried Plantain with Bean Stew (“RedRed”)
Grilled Tilapia with Banku, red sauce, and vegetables

Slightly more advanced:
Boiled Yam and Palava Sauce (“Ampesi”)
Emutuo with Palm Nut soup
Fufu with any soup


BRIEF NOTE ON BREAKFAST AND DESSERT
Dessert is not commonly part of the Ghanaian meal. If anything, fresh fruit is sometimes served at the end of the meal, but I believe this is a more recent trend.

Breakfast is often “tea” (which mean mean any hot drink, so you have “coffee tea” “milo tea” and “tea tea”) with white bread and butter or jam, but on the streets you can also find a wide variety of porridges. My favorite is Hausa porridge, found often near the markets where Hausa traders come to sell their goods. The porridge is based on a west African grain, has a smooth consistency and a spicy ginger flavor that is more savory than sweet. It may be taken with any combination of: white sugar, crushed peanuts, or condensed milk. The first time I had it I didn’t like it but I woke the next morning with a powerful craving for it that has yet to subside 5 years later.