Meat Stew

Ingredients:

2 lbs beef
2 1/2 Onions
12 small Tomatoes
2 cups Brown rice
1 cup of Cooking oil
1 large Potato
Handful String beans (12 -15)
3 small Carrots
8 hot green peppers (the larger type)
2 teaspoons of Curry
2 Bay leaves
4 clovesof Garlic
1" piece of Ginger
5 Cloves
a pinch of Anise
a pinch of dried Rosemary

Wash the meat, then cut it up into 2" cubes. Try and make them as even as possible, so that they cook evenly.

Blend the half onion, garlic, ginger, anise, rosemary and cloves until very smooth.

Pour over the meat. Add 2 teaspoons of salt, the 2 bay leaves and 1 maggi cube. Toss and make sure all pieces are covered well. Leave to marinate in the fridge for at least an hour. (you could alternatively leave in the fridge overnight).

Place the meat in a pot and steam until it is tender. Add water when it runs low in the pot.

Heat the cooking oil in a pan and fry the meat.

When it turns dark brown it is ready. Remove quickly so it doesn't burn. Fry in batches if necessary.

Pick and wash the rice. Cook as you would regular rice. If you are not sure, better err on the side of caution and use less water than you normally would and only add more, as you need it.

Blend the tomatoes and peppers.

Peel the Potato, scrape the carrots and remove strings from the beans.

Cut the string beans on a slant, about 1" long pieces. Cut the carrots to match the shape of the beans. Bring a pot of water to the boil, then add the carrots and boil for about 3 minutes then add the string beans and boil for and additional 1 minute. Pour off the Hot water, then run under cold water and drain in a colander.

Cube the potato into half inch cubes. If the are too small, the tend to break up in the stew. You want to still have chunks you can bite on.

Slice the 2 onions.

Heat 2 tablespoons of the cooking oil and fry the onions.

When they turn translucent, add the curry and fry until the edges begin to brown.

Add the blended tomatoes.

Fry until almost sticking to the bottom of the pan.

Add the stock from the meat and simmer.

Add the pieces of fried meat,

and the cubed potatoes, plus 2 cups of water,  cover and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and let it simmer down until the stew thickens and the potatoes are cooked.

Serve with the brown rice and steamed vegetable.

Veggie Eggs

Veggie Eggs

I have been trying to incoporate more vegetables in my meals, so when I fried some eggs a few days ago, I got all the vegetables I had and added them.  I didn't even think of adding it to the blog so I have no pictures of the process. The end result looked so good I just had to take a picture.

 
Ingredients:
4 Eggs
1 Onion
2 Tomatoes
1/4 Squash
5 cloves of Garlic
1 Green pepper
Cooking oil
Salt
Black pepper


Dice the vegetables into 1/2" cubes.

Crack the eggs into a small bowl and then transfer to a bigger bowl, one at a time. I learnt this the hard way.

One time I was about to fry some eggs and had cracked  5 of my six eggs all staright into my bowl and the six egg was bad, I had to throw out the whole mixture and then go out to buy some more eggs.

Heat a pan with 2 teaspoonfuls of oil. while the oil heats, add a pinch of salt and black pepper, and beat the eggs very well, till they are frothy. Rotate the pan to make sure the oil coats every part of it. Pour in the egg mixture and turn down the heat slightly. Flip the egg with a spatula when the underside begins to brown. Turn out onto a plate.

Add a teaspoon of oil to the still hot pan and toss in the vegetables. Stir-fry for a minute or two. Add a pinch of salt  and black pepper to taste.

Pour it out onto the eggs and enjoy!!!!



Gizzard Sauce with Pasta

I love Pasta! The only reason I haven't featured a pasta dish here is because "they" say I need to lose weight and it is one of the big No-No's! That said, every now and then I indulge. I made some Macaroni with Gizzard stew over the weekend and thoroughly enjoyed myself.

Here are my ingredients:
1 kg Gizzard
500g Macaroni
4 or 5 Cloves of Garlic
3 Onions
10 Tomatoes
8 Peppers
2 Green / Bell Peppers
1 Tablespoon Tomato Puree
1 cup Cooking Oil
Ginger
Salt

Wash the Gizzard well and season with  1/2 an Onion blended smooth with The garlic, salt, some black pepper and a very tiny bit of Ginger.

Place in a covered pot and steam for 10 - 15 minutes. It doesn't contain as much water as say, chicken or meat so you will need to add a cup or two of water after it steams for a while.

In another pot, bring about 2 litre of water to boil. (The pot should be large enough to contain the uncooked pasta, halfway.) When the water boils, add a teaspoonful of salt and add the pasta. Cook for about 10 minutes. When I was about 12 or 13, my aunt taught me an interesting way of telling when spaghetti was cooked. When it got soft, I would take one out of the boiling water and fling it at an oil-painted wall or tile. If it stuck to the wall / tile, it was cooked. If it fell off, I was to give it a few more minutes. It served me well : ) When it is cooked, pour it into a colander, siting in the sink. leave it to drain for a few minutes and then put it back into the pot.

Finely chop the remaining 2 and a half onions. Blend the tomatoes and pepper. Toss in the puree when the tomatoes are blended just to mix it in.

Heat the cooking oil in a pan and fry the gizzard. You may need to work in 2 or 3 batches depending on the size of you pan. Return the now browned gizzard to the stock  you cookied it in.

Keep the pan on the fire but reduce the oil and then add the chopped onions. Fry the onions until they turn translucent and start to brown.

Add the blended tomatoes, pepper and puree, and cover for 5 minutes.
Uncover and allow it to simmer and reduce the liquid in it.

As the water reduces, it will start to fry, if it is sticking, add a little of the oil you removed earlier.
Fry it dry till it is almost beginning to burn and you have to stir continuously to prevent it sticking to the bottom of the pan.

Add the stock (about 2 cups, add water if need be) and gizzard to the sauce, cover and leave to simmer.

Uncover about 3 - 5 minutes later and lower the heat, allow to thicken gently. When it thickens enough, taste it and add salt if necessary then add the chopped Green peppers and leave on for a minute or so.

Serve with the pasta.

Veggie Fish Sauce

As you may have noticed, I seem to be using quite a lot of fish in my cooking lately. I am trying to wean red meat from my diet and so naturally it falls on fish and chicken, maybe some pork but not much.

I find that oilier kinds of fish are tastier than their leaner cousins. Not to worry, fish fat can actually be good for you. The most easily accessible ones of these to me here are Salmon and Tilapia.

My seeming bias toward Tilapia happened completely by accident. I went fish buying and got an incredibly good deal so I bought a whole bunch. It would be impractical to go out and buy Salmon just so I don't blog about Tilapia again. So Tilapia it is : )

This was something I just threw together very quickly. About 20 minutes to cook the sauce and rice to go with it.

Ingredients:
2 whole Tilapia
4 small onion
7 tomatoes

1 green pepper

1/2 small squash
1 bulb garlic

I started by blending the bulb of garlic with one small onion. I then heated about 2 tablespoons of cooking oil and fried the onion/garlic puree.

 I added rice that had been washed and drained, and fried it for a few minutes. The aroma from this is incredible!! Do this for about 2 to 3 minutes and then add water and cook the rice as you normally would.

Go ahead and chop the onions, tomatoes, green pepper and squash into cubes. Whateve size you decide to make them, try and make them even, so the cook evenly.

My Tilapia was already cut into 3 pieces each, but I went ahead and cut each piece again into 3. I seasoned it simply with salt and black pepper.

In about a tablespoonful of cooking oil, start frying the Onions. You want the vegetables to remain crunchy so don't cook them too long. Add the tomatoes about a minute later. Then the squash.

As you continue to fry the vegetables and the juices from them start to simmer, add the fish. Crumble in one Maggi cube, stir it about a little and then leave covered.  This is just to quickly steam the fish.

About 2 minutes later add the green pepper and salt if necessary. Leave it uncovered to allow the moisture to reduce.

As soon as the rice is cooked, you are ready to eat.
Serve with sliced avocado.

Valentine Eggs

I usually don't make much of a fuss over Valentines day, so I woke up and went to make breakfast as usual. I got some eggs, sausage and tomatoes and got ready. I chopped 2 tomatoes half of one of those big chicken sausages that have come on the market recently. I added just salt and a dash of black pepper and beat my eggs. When the oil in the pan was hot and I poured in the eggs, it hit me. Instead of just throwing on the tomatoes and sausage like I had planned, why not try something? So I lowered the heat under the eggs and got creative. I arranged the tomatoes in a beautiful heart - if I say so myself - than filled the heart with sausage. I had some left over so I decided what the heck, and put the rest all around.

All was going just perfect until it was time to flip it. I flipped it and the blasted tomatoes and sausages moved. I hope and prayed that at least some had set well enough to maitain some semblance of a heart. When that side was done and I flipped it over again, I did some damage control by surgically removing ans reattaching some parts of my heart.
I went and presented my master piece to my husband and he looked at the eggs then looked back at me and said "what?". Just as I was about to scream, he burst out laughing. Whew!
Later in the day, we had a black out throughout most of Accra, so in the evening we went to this charming place at Tesano called "Rhythms" and had a wonderful evening. All in all, a lovely day.
How was your Valentines day?

Chicken Stew with Rice and Plantain

I decided to make my first dish, one that is popular with many people in Ghana, Chicken stew with rice and fried plantain.

Measurements and quantities when it comes to cooking and recipes, tend to be a big problem for Ghanaians and I'm sorry to say I am no different. I will however try approximate with regards to whatever it is I'm writing about.

For this meal, which I think could serve 4 or 5 people, I used

2 pounds of Chicken (broiler or 'soft', as we say in the market)
2 medium size Onions
10 medium size Tomatoes
10 - 12 peppers (use as much or as little as works for you)
3 cups rice (standard measuring cup)
3 fingers of Plantain
2 cups Cooking oil
2 dessert spoon tomato puree/paste
2 maggie cubes
1/4 teaspoon Black pepper
1/2 teaspoon Rosemary
1 teaspoon Curry powder
2 cloves Garlic
Salt to taste

So, the first thing I did was remove the skin and as much of the fat as I could get off. I cut it into sizeable portions, which are of course entirely up to you. I then washed it thoroughly, since chicken tends to have a not-so-pleasant scent. You could rinse it in a little lemon water if it really bothers you.

Add the black pepper, crushed maggie cubes and salt. Be careful of how much salt you add since the cubes are salted. The garlic also goes in at this stage. You could either chop it finely, crush it with a garlic press or our local asanka, or even blend it, although I think its a waste to use a blender for 2 cloves. Although it makes sense when you are adding a few other things (for seasoning) that need blending like Ginger, onions, pepper etc.

Toss it to get all the spices around to all the pieces. Let it stand for 3 to 5 minutes then put it in a coverd pot and steam. No water is needed because the juices will run from the chicken.

Depending on what kind of chicken being used (layer is much leaner and therefore tougher), it may take between 7 to 10 minutes for broiler which will start to fall apart if overcooked and up to 30 minutes for layer. Do add water if you feel the need, especially with cooking layer. We don't want it to burn.

In the meantime, you could cut the onions. I like to sit the onion on it's end and slice down the middle. I then place the flat part of each half on the board and slice in the same dirrection as the natural lines. I have an aunt who likes to slice accross the lines. Whatever works for you is fine, just as long as the sizes are uniform, so they can cook at the sam pace. If you fancy some exta garlic, you could slice some up.

This is also a good time to blend the tomatoes and pepper. If you however, prefer more texture in your stew, you could just chop them up as you like.

When the chicken is cooked, drain off the stock (liquid goodness from the steaming) and put aside. Pour half the cooking oil into a frying pan and heat. Split a clove of garlic lengthwise and put it in the oil. Use this to judge the heat of the oil. W the garlic starts to brown and almost burn, the oil is hot enough. Carefully place the chicken in the hot oil. Use a fork, it makes it easier. Turn down the heat a little and fry the chicken in 2 batches if necessary.

Turn the pieces over to check if they are beginning to brown. If they are, flip them over to fry the other side. When they start to get golden, they are ready to be removed. Dont fry the chicken too dry or else it will become hard and stringy.

Using the same pot you steamed the chicken in, heat about half the oil left over fom frying the chicken. Add the slices onions stirring occassionally.

Fry the onions till they lose their colour and start to look transparent.

When they do, add the curry powder and continue to fry. Stir to prevent it sticking. The longer it fries, the more it sticks to the bottom.

Continue to fry the onions and curry until they begin to brown around the edges

Add the tomato puree stirring continuously for about 2 minutes.

By now, it should be almost sticking to the bottom of the pot.

Add the blended tomatoes and stir until it is evenly mixed. Cover and leave to simmer. This allows the tomatoes to cook as well as the onions to soften. Stir ocassionally making sure it is not sticking. As the sauce thickens, it will begin to fry again. ry it for a while until it is begining to stick to the bottom.

Add the chicken stock and stir.

At this point, add the fried chicken to the sauce. If it is too thick, add 1/4 to 1/2 cup of water. Turn down the heat, cover half way and leave it to simmer.

Wash and peel the plantain, then slice the plantain. This can be done in a number of ways. Straight accross to form circles. Down the middle then accross to form half circles (better on large plantains). Or down the middle of the half circles to form cubes.

I prefer to slice diagonally to form 1 inch thick ovals. Plantains are sweet so some people add nothing in the way of flavouring. I like to add a dash of salt, just to give it a bit of taste.

Heat the remaining cup of oil in a frying pan. when it is hot enough, carefully place the plantains in a prepare a colander to drain the plantains when they are done. Alternatively, you could place paper towels on a plate to soak up the excess oil. As the plantains start to brown around the edges, flip them over to fry the other side. Watch them carefully as this side will cook faster than the first. remove as soon as the second side is done. A serated spoon may be best for this, unless you can be very quick.

Wash the rice and place in a colander. Drain it for a few minutes then place in a pot. Cover with 5 cups of water. The general rule is 2 cups of water to 1 cup of rice. I learnt the hard way that, that isn't always the case (Different types of rice require different amounts of water). So I always start with 1 cup less and add the last cup in bits if needed. Add 2 teaspoons of oil to the water add salt to your taste, cover and bring to a boil.

As the rice swells and the water reduces, stir and cover with a polythene bag. I prefer to use the clear 'olonka' bag, but feel free to improvise. Turn the heat down to the lowest and leave it to cook slowly.

In about 15 to 20 minutes, you should have nice fluffy rice to go with your Chicken stew. If you want to add some vegetables, put them in a few minutes before the rice is cooked. That way they will steam a little but will not get soggy.

You could serve this with Avocado, coleslaw, etc. I would go for potato salad, but then again ... I want it with everything.

This is the simplest recipe I know for this meal, but there are many inventive ways of cooking chicken stew. Let me know how you prepare yours so I can try it.