Ghana - surplus yam,extra plantain,flying maggots and everyday rice

Assalamualaykum warahmatullahi wabarakatu. As promised, Ghana report with pictures even though it came two months later. Never mind, it's here now. Quick fact on Ghana - a country in West Africa with a population of about 25 million, currency Ghana cedi (1 cedi = 40 pence). The official language is English but I found that hard to believe as everyone spoke Twi pronounced Chwi. Religion mainly Christianity and they do practice this impressively like 5.00am & 6.00pm Church service everyday! Second largest religious group are the Muslims. But there are also a lot of traditionalist who sometimes practice it along with Islam or Christianity (scary). People are very nice and welcoming. Any non-black persons gets greeted as 'Obruni' by little kids meaning white man and if you're ever invited out by a Ghanaian, don't try to pay, it's an insult. 

Boti falls

Three headed palm tree

Market

Mini supermarket

The women we got our vegetables from

Butchers

Well to start with their market was just like heaven for food enthusiast. They had everything, most of it fresh. As long as you don't think of storing it. Seriously, there should have been a what not to buy and store for more than three days handed over at the airport as people arrived because the shelf life is an average of three days. Bear in mind these were things that were bought from local market, hence no expiry dates. There I was, first week thinking, well the electricity is great, there's fridge in the house, I'll just buy everything to last me for at least two weeks.Never happened. To be fair the fridge did have issues but by the fourth day the not so hot chili that was prophesied to be really spicy had maggots in them. Yes, real maggots. I hate maggots but I thought well just  let me sort the 'maggoty ones out' and then the maggot jumped. Considering on the squirmy scale, I'm like 4 out of 10, I flew out of the kitchen screaming flying maggots. Of course everyone came to see why I was shouting and one of the other housemates came to the rescue after saying they didn't expect me to be the kind of person who screams when they saw a maggot. I am after all only human. It was a good thing they came to see it too as no one would have believed me.

Still on chili, after the second week, I was used to the fact that the chili was not hot, because I have a high spice threshold, I add it to my food in abundance. So like before, 1 whole red chili, didn't think much of it. Had a small piece of the chili and my brain was on fire. Initially I was like, this doesn't feel right and it took a while for my reflexes to kick in by which time, tears were streaming down my face. The only drink close by was coke, really bad idea. After turning the fan to the highest,dawning half a litre of water, it reduced a bit. You would have thought that will be the end with me and chili but the love is still as strong as ever. Apparently, the reason why people like me love eating chili is that the hotness of the spice releases endorphins,so another kind of high-chili high.

Plantains- Ghana has so many of this. To those who don't know what it is, it's a variety of banana, looks like banana and some people claim tastes like banana(definitely doesn't). It's very starchy and usually not eaten raw because not as sweet. But fry it and you have an amazing side dish or even main meal. It is also used to make plantain chips - I had so many of these in Ghana and even brought some back with me. Another way in which it is eaten is as a snack roasted with groundnut(peanut) or roasted fish -yum. Powdered plantain can be made in dough and eaten with soups as well. Some very health conscious people also prefer to boil it - boil with beans and you give your beans a distinct sweet taste.The lady I bought my plantain from didn't speak any English & I spoke no Twi so the transaction always made me laugh. And even though I get about 6-8 plantains for like half a cedi that's 20pence (considering cheapest is 3 3 for £1 here), she always gave me extra - for being a customer. I even tried to explain that I wouldn't be able to finish it before it gets bad but she would still give me extra. 

Fruits- the fruits were really sweet. I mean the sweetest pineapple I ever had was in Ghana. And have you ever tasted fresh cocoa fruit before, the white gummy stuff before it becomes chocolate? Well I did, and it was nice- I even preferred it to chocolate. I also had the coconut water which my housemates weren't particularly a fan of. And of course your usual fruits.

Yam- I love yams and Ghana is known for some of the freshest whitest yams ever. I really wanted to bring a bagful home if I wasn't so scared I'll be arrested for food laundering!

Yams that look like feet

cocoyam

Fat yams

yam chips

Sea food- Since I couldn't be certain what meat was halal ( generally) and what wasn't, I just naturally had fish, no complaints there. Apart from fish they had a lot of shrimps, really massive ones on sticks, some dried and grounded. There were mussels as well which I wasn't brave enough to try.

shrimp & pepper sauce

Fish with kenke

Jaws

Rice- this has nothing to do with Ghana itself but my colleague that I traveled with is Bengali and one thing about Bengali is they love their rice. I mean she had rice everyday till we came back. It took me a week to notice we weren't eating anything else. Even when we ate out - she'll order rice. I'd ask what we're having for dinner and she'll be like rice and omelet. Who eats rice & omelet? By the second week I was stuffed full of rice so I just let her go on. Not when I had all these variety of food surrounding me. Lets just say rice is never going to be the same again. 

Ghanaian jollof rice

It's worth mentioning that I met someone who I admired so much for her interest in the local food. This German girl just tried everything and anything which puts me to shame.

So when it was time to come back, I wanted to bring everything back with me but couldn't. For one, the UK government does not allow certain food items into the country so I had to check with defra (department for environment, food and rural affairs) to see what I can or cannot. I brought several things back but I just couldn't figure which category yam belonged to so I didn't bring it as I've had a warning from defra once before (don't ask). So, what did I bring?

Plantain chips, Raw plantain, palm fruit, grounded shrimps, anchovies, roasted fish and stockfish. 

palm fruit

organic palm fruit

The palm fruit I'd seen throughout my stay but on the last day, I asked from the girl at the market what it was and after she told me, I bought the organic one. She then had to explain how to cook it-Ghanaians are patient! Anyway, since it was my last day, I brought it back and tried it. Here's the recipe slightly modified by me.

Abenkwan (palm nut soup) also known as Banga soup

What you'll need (serves 6-8)

1 kg of palm fruit 

2 onions (finely chopped)

Assorted meat or chicken (oxtail, lamb, beef, goat, tripe, etc)

Stockfish -cod, pollock cleaned and soaked in hot water to soften, alternatively canned kipper fillets

Canned fish (mackerel, sardine)

2 tablespoon grounded shrimps

1-2 tablespoon chilli powder 

2 stock cubes

1 handful of dried anchovies

Salt to taste

Then freestyle on anything else like periwinkles, snails, cow foot, prawns, crabs, etc.

1 teaspoon curry powder and thyme

2 cloves garlic (finely chopped)

Optional 

Okra/egusi/bitterleaf

stock fish

Preparation

Boil the washed palm nut in 2 cups of water for 15-20 minutes until soft. Drain and pound the nut. Pass through a sieve by adding some water to separate the kernels from the chaff. 

pounding

what you get after sieving

  

Add washed assorted meat, onions, garlic, curry, thyme, 1 stock cube and salt in a large soup pot. 

Add 1/2 a cup of water and put on medium-high heat to boil for approximately 20 minutes or until meat is tender.

Add the sieved palm nut juice in the mixture

Add the fish and everything else.

Cook for another 15-20 minutes or until soup is fairly thickened

I used spinach instead of bitter leaf ( could not get my hands on any)

Serve with Fufu, banky, donkunu, pounded yam, rice or whatever you want even bread!

Abenkwan before I added the spinach

Banku

You'll notice it has no oil, that's because the first step is like manufacturing palm oil. Alternatively skip that first step and buy a canned palm nut concentrate (well that's the only option for people who won't find the fresh one locally) plus it is hard work!!

Also if you can get your hands on some local herbs such as scent leaf, Uyayak, then do add them. 

I will just chuck in some bay leaves, not the same but does the job. 

Verdict I loved it and I chickened out of trying most of the new food. It's a really beautiful place with amazing people. If you're ever thinking of visiting West Africa, I'll definitely recommend Ghana! 

Tip: whenever abroad and travelling to the UK, always check before bringing food items or plants. Never make any assumption. 

Assalamualaykum: with love from Ghana

Assalamualaykum warahmatullahi wabarakatu. Alhamdulillah, Another ramadhan is here; a time to ask for Allah’s forgiveness and mercy. I am spending half of my ramadhan in Ghana this year which is why I haven't posted anything in a very long time. Ramadhan here is interesting and although humid, I don’t think it is any different to fasting anywhere else in the world as everywhere has its own challenges. But before I tell you how absolutely beautiful it is down here, allow me to seethe a little about the food I had on the plane.

If you don’t know or haven’t guessed by now, I do not just eat anything. Add lactose intolerance to halal and I give anyone who has the courage to offer me any kind of food a dilemma. So, I didn’t think it was asking too much if I requested a halal meal from the airline I was flying with especially since it was going to be a while before I was guaranteed another proper meal. Considering the flight was from London, you would think this would be easy (and maybe even cheap); but I was mistaken. The meal which turned out to be vegetarian (or even vegan) would probably make it to the top 10 list of the worst food I’ve ever tasted! Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against vegetarian meals but the only reason I never bother with them is because they almost always contain cream, cheese or both which I can’t have. However, this wonderful meal (meant to be rice with dhal) we were served wasn’t even salted. I wonder who made this food or what they were thinking, one thing is certain, that food was not tasted! The only explanation I could come up with was that the person added all sorts of spices(probably randomly picked from international aisle at the supermarket) that made the food inedible. I love spices,but when added to the meal appropriately and in proportion. It tasted like the herbal concoction they have in Africa that is supposed to be used for illness, because this food was bitter. If I wanted medications, I'd head to the pharmacy. I even persisted and tried salt & pepper but that had no effect whatsoever- may have even made it worse. It was not just my pickiness as another person who had the same meal would not even touch it again once she had tasted it. As I didn’t want to be sick before I’d arrived to my destination, I asked them to take it away.

Ranting over, simply put, Ghana is beautiful. Everything in it just reminds me of Allah’s Greatness. The town I’m currently in is a little town in the Eastern region  known as Koforidua pronounced "koforidia" and is surrounded by mountains which explains why there isn’t much sun. But the view is just breathtaking and no words can describe it and no camera can capture the beauty. You’d really need to see it to understand what I mean. The whole country has quite a number of water bodies with the different Volta rivers coming together to form the largest manmade lake, the lake Volta.

They have sea food in abundant here. They seem to have something special going on with tilapia fish as every restaurant whether local or international will have it on their menu either roasted or fried. You could imagine how hungry we were after about 30 hours without proper meal. So on getting to Koforidua we went to what was described as the most reliable and moderately priced restaurant in town according to a guide book. On the menu was a combination of local and international food; they even have the Ghanaian version of Jollof rice. I was not completely convinced about their fried rice though so decided to order the popular local dish called Banku (fermented corn & cassava dough) with fish and spice ( made of raw tomatoes, chilli and onions) which isn’t for the faint hearted due to the chilli content. The food although really spicy was very good except you could see the full set of the fish’s teeth which didn't deter me. One meal I’m still reluctant to try is their fufu (cassava/pounded yam & plantain). My aim is to learn some of the recipes so I can share them when I get back. Pictures will come when I get back also because for some reason, I can't post any.

So insha Allah we will all have a very productive ramadhan and may Allah accept all of our dua’s. May He forgive our sins and bestow his Mercies on us. Remember that although you’re fasting, it is important to still eat in moderation when you break your fast and not to spend the whole evening cooking or eating. A reminder that whilst you already know what you’ll eat for Iftar, some are starving to death. Remember the horn of Africa in your duas and if you’re yet to donate, then use ramadhan to get even more rewards by giving during this month as a appeals are still ongoing. It is also a very good time to think about some things you have thought to give up such as smoking as analysts have found that to make something become a habit; it takes approximately 30days which would make ramadhan the best for breaking or making habits. May Allah make it easy for us all (Amin).