Dandelion Stew

 Dandelion Stew

Ingredients:

Dandelion (about 2 cups full when boiled and mashed)
1 pound ckicken (already steamed)
6 - 8 large tomatoes
2 onions
2 tablespoons cooking oil
10 -12 Kpakpo shito (hot green peppers)
1 cup chicken stock
1 Maggi cube
Salt

Start off by plucking the dandelion leaves off the main stalk, then washing them. Then boil them in about 2 cups of water until the leaves turn darker and are soft. I know it might be tricky to guage how much raw dandelion you will need .... but you can never have too much. If it is way more, just freeze the rest for another time.

 

Drain off the water and then in an Asanka (or mortar) mash the leaves into a pulp. Do not use the blender, it will make it too smooth. You want to have a bit of texture in your stew. Mash half the peppers into it.

Chop the tomatoes ...

... and the onions.

Heat up the cooking oil and start frying the onions. Fry them until they turn translucent.

 

Add the diced tomatoes and fry until dry and the tomatoes are soft. Dont let it burn, you do not want that bitter aftertaste in your stew.



 

 

 If your chicken/stock is already steamed but frozen like mine was, you might want to defrost and heat it before you use it, just so it doesn't affect your cooking time and speed.

 

Add the ckicken stock and let it simmer down a little.

Now add the dandelion ...

... as well as the rest of the peppers.

Put in the chicken, lower the heat. Check yoursalt and add the maggi cube and some salt if necessary. Simmer for about 5 - 7 minutes until it thickens

Enjoy this with Rice, Yam, Plantain etc

Groundnut Stew (with a Guinean twist)

Most Ghanaians tend to cook soups in large quantities. In the case of Groundnut/Peanut butter soup, we usually eat it as soup the day it is made, and then thicken it down to a stew.

This is a Guinean version which really is a stew. You could use any number of meats to prepare it; Beef, Goat meat, Pork, Mutton, Chicken, Fish, Oxtail, etc. and most of the time, combinations of them. For this post, I decided to use just Chicken, because that was what my friends used when showing me how to prepare it.



Ingredients

2 pounds chicken

1 Margerine tin /500 ml Peanut butter

1 Large Onion

8-10 Tomatoes

15-20 Peppers (kpakpo shito)

1/2 cup Cooking Oil

1 Tablespoon Tomato puree

4 Cloves Garlic

1 Large Maggi cube

Salt

Cut and wash the chicken. Leave the skin on it you like it, I don't but left it on like in the original recipe. Crush or finely chop the garlic, crumble the maggi cube and then add about a teaspoon of salt. Toss it and leave to marinate for about 10-15 minutes.

While the chicken marinates, slice the onion into half circles ...

.. add the pepper to the tomatoes and blend till smooth.

Scoop the peanut butter into a bowl. Add 1 1/2 - 2 cups of water. Then with clean fingers, mash the peanut butter into the water till they are mixed into a waterier, runnier paste.

Heat the cooking oil in a large pot.

When the oil is hot, add all the chicken. It should instantly start to sizzle but eventually settle down to steam.

Add the onions and stir them in, allowing them to fry with the chicken.

After about 5 minutes when the chicken turns white and the stock mixes with the oil, add the tomato puree. Fry the chicken and puree for a couple more minutes...

... then add the blended tomatoes. Gently stir them in and cover. Leave to simmer for 5 minutes so the tomatoes can cook. Stir occassionaly to prevent it sticking to the bottom.

Add the peanut butter mixture to the pot and leave to simmer gently. Lower the fire so it doesn't burn.

When the oil starts to come to the surface, it is almost ready. Continue simmering until you reach your desired thickness.

Serve this on a bed of rice, with boiled yam, potatoes, cocoyam or plantain, it goes with everything.

Give this a try and let me know how it turned out.