Grilled Tilapia

I love Tilapia. For me, there isn't another fish that is as tasty yet so versatile. Fried, boiled, steamed or grilled, it is always very good.

Ingredients:
2 whole Tilapia (scaled and cleaned. I personally remove the gills as well, but most people leave them in)
5 cloves garlic, 1 thumb size piece of ginger and 1/2 a medium size onion
2 cups rice
2 medium size onions + 1/2 for the rice
10 small tomatoes
6 - 8 chilli peppers
1 cup frozen mixed vegetables
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 maggi shrimp cube
Salt

Blend the garlic, ginger and 1/2 onion. Pour over the fish. Crumble the cube over the fish with an additional 1/4 teaspoon salt and refrigerate for at least an hour. Brush the grill rack with an oiled cloth and place the Tilapia in the grill with high heat. Grill till the skin blisters and browns then flip over.

Wash and drain the rice

Pour 1 tablespoon of oil into a pot and fry for a minute or 2 then add the rice. continue to fry, stirring continuously so the rice doesn't stick.

Add 3 1/2 cups of water, 1 teaspoon of salt, cover and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat when it starts to boil.

When the water is all soaked up, add the frozen vegetables and continue to cook till rice and veggies are cooked through.

Slice the onions thinly....

... and blend the tomatoes and pepper.

Heat the rest of the cooking oil in a pan and fry the onions until translucent and the ends browning.

Add the tomatoes about a teaspoon of salt.

Fry until dry then add 1/3 cup of water and reduce heat.

Simmer until almost dry again then turn off heat.

When no liquid comes from the fish, it is done. 

Serve with the vegetable rice and gravy.

Enjoy!

Jollof Rice with Chicken

Ingredients:
2 pounds Chicken
3 Onions
12 Tomatoes
15 Kpakpo shito (hot green peppers)
1 tablespoon blend of spices (ginger, garlic, onion, bay leaves, cloves, rosemary)
3 tablespoons tomato puree
1 desertpoon curry
4 cups rice
2 cups cooking oil
2 maggi cubes
Salt

First start by cutting up the chicken into equal parts. Then remove the skin and wash thoroughly. Drain of all the liquid.

Add the blend of spices, 1 maggi cube and a bit of salt. Toss it all until all the pieces of chicken are coated. Leave it to marinate in the fridge for about 15 minutes.

While the chicken is marinating, slice the onions, wash and drain the rice ...

.. and blend the tomatoes and pepper.

Place the chicken in a pot and steam until tender. Add a little water (about half a cup)if it starts to run too low in the pot, you don't want burnt chicken. When it is cooked, remove it from the stock, but save the stock for later.

Heat 1 and a half cups of oil in a pan and fry the chicken, turning it over until it is light to golden brown on both sides.

While the chicken is frying, put the remaining half a cup of cooking oil into a big pot (this is the pot to cook the Jollof in) and heat it up.

Toss in the onions and fry till they soften.

When they look translucent, add the curry and fry until the edges start to brown.

Add the blended tomatoes and pepper. Cover for 5 minutes to cook the tomatoes, then uncover and allow it to fry dry, stirring it occassionaly and not letting it stick. Add the chicken stock.

Add the fried chicken, lower the heat and let it simmer so the chicken pieces can soak up all  the wonderful flavour. Stirr occassionally so that it doesn't stick.

When it thickens, take the chicken out taking only the little sauce that is on the chicken. The rest of the sauce in the pot is going towards the Jollof.

As the sauce continues to cook increase the heat again, add half a cup of the oil left over from frying the chicken, then add the tomato puree. Fry this until it is almost sticking to the bottom of the pot.

Add the rice and continue to stir.

Add 4 cups of water and the remaining maggi cube. Stir it all in then taste for salt, keeping in mind that the rice will soak up the water, so don't worry if it is a little less salty than you would like. Reduce the heat to the lowest level, cover with a polythene bag and leave to cook. Check it after 15 minutes, stir it from the bottom, with kitchen prongs, so that it stays fluffy. If it seems dry, spinkle about 1/4 cup of water into it using your hand. Cover it back up and leave to cook some more.

Serve with potato salad. Enjoy!

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.

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.