Waakye with Fried Fish and Wele stew

This is not the first time I have made rice and beans, but I would just use regular black eyed peas/beans with white rice. It tasted good but could hardly be called Waakye. Last weekend I decided to go all out and make the kind of waakye I go out and buy almost everyday.

Here are my Ingredients:

4 cups Brown Rice
3 cups red beans
3 millet stalks
3 medium Tilapia (cut into 3 each)
1 pound of wele (cow skin) cut into sizeable pieces
8-10 medium sized tomatoes
2 medium sized onions
8 Peppers
Cooking oil
2 Maggi cubes
Salt
Black Pepper

I start by soaking the beans overnight. I find that it not only softens them and reduces cooking time, but it makes it easier to pick out stones and such, which I do and then put the beans on to boil.

You could also season the fish with some salt, black pepper and one Maggi shrimp cube and leave overnight, otherwise, you could just do that 10 to 15 minutes before you fry it.

Wash the millet stalks to remove any dirt or dust. Do this quickly since the colour starts to run as soon as they get wet. Cut them into lengths of 3 to 4 inches, toss them in with the boiling beans and allow then to cook together.

Pick through the brown rice if you have to. There are a few husks of rice that are better not found in the waakye as well as stones depending on how "brown" your rice is. I bought mine from a lady in Kaneshie market who had brown rice that had been picked as well as a cheaper version she said hadn't been picked. The price difference wasn't equal to the amount of work I saw looming ahead of me, so I chose the picked version.

Wash and drain your rice and add it to the beans as soon as they are cooked, add salt and some water if necessary and cook as you would cook rice.

Now as you may have noticed from the picture, I left the millet stalks in and cooked the rice with them in ... don't do that. It is easier to remove them before adding the rice than when they are cooked with the rice, as I found out the hard way.

Blend the tomatoes and pepper. Chop the onions and heat about 2 tablespoons of cooking oil and start frying the onions.

When the onions turn translucent and just start to brown around the edges, add the tomato puree.

Add a Maggi cube some salt and cover for about 5 minutes to allow the tomatoes to cook.

Uncover and allow the sauce to simmer down and start to fry. Fry the stew till it is dry and almost sticking ...

... then add the wele and  a cup or 2 of water depending on how thick or tough your wele is. The tougher it is, the more water you will need. Cover and simmer on a low fire. when the stew thickens and the wele is the desired texture (a fork can go through), you don't want to over cook it as it will become a gooey gluey mess.

Heat 1/2 a cup of oil in a pan. When it is hot, lower the heat and gently place the fish into it making sure to space them enough that they don't touch. If they do, the will tear when you try to turn them. Fry each side for about 3 to 5 minutes.

Using a spatula or fork, turn the fish, if there is significant resistance leave it for a minute or so, then try turning again, when it is ready, it should turn easily. When it is evenly cooked, remove from the oil and drain on paper towels. Continue till all the fish is fried.
Serve the Waakye with the Fish and Wele stew. Enjoy!!



Wheat Porridge

This is a very simple porridge that I really enjoy for breakfast or as a light evening meal. It is simply wheat flour, cooked as a porridge.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 Stew spoonfuls wheat flour
2 cups of water
pinch of salt
Milk
Sugar / Sweetener

Measure out your wheat flour into a pot.

Add 1 1/2 cups of the water and put it on the fire. Add a pinch of salt and stir it continously until it starts to thicken.  If you stop stirring it will form lumps at the bottom of the pot. When  it strart to thicken, add the rest of the water if it is too thick, otherwise, just cover it and leave it to cook for about 5 minutes.

Pour into a bowl, add your milk and sweetener. I use powdered or evaporated milk (Ideal milk) fresh milk makes the porridge too watery for my liking. Otherwise you could incoporate it into the cooking, or make the porridge extra thick with the fresh milk in mind, so that it reaches the thickness you like when you add it.

I like it with wheat bread, which I tear into bite-size pieces and dunk in it. Sometimes I add bits of banana.
Enjoy!

Definition of a Miracle by Farida N. Bedwei (Book excerpts)

I was doing my usual search on the internet for inspiration when I ran across an article that said that Farida Bedwei was launching her first novel, "Definition of a Miracle". I googled the title and came across the first excerpt on google books.This is a story that is inspiring for disabled people as well as regular folk. From the excerpts, I find that not only is it funny as well as informative, it provides a unique view from the point of an African. As a Ghanaian, I can picture the places she describes that I know and imagine quite vividly those I don't. I have had the pleasure of knowing her for a few years and my admiration and awe for her continue to grow.

The second excerpt I found at Story time.

The book is available in Silverbird Lifestyle Shop, Accra Mall, Julikart Cosmetics, Osu near MTN and INKA Accessories, opposite El Gringo, Nyaniba. After the launch, (at the Pan-African Writers Association (PAWA) House near Accra Girls High School on Saturday March 5th, at 6pm. Autographed copies available) she hopes to distribute it to the other regions as well as the English speaking countries in West Africa.

Enjoy! 

Definition of a Miracle was written by Farida N. Bedwei and is an excerpt from her début novel of the same name.

Copyright © Farida N. Bedwei 2010.

Farida N. Bedwei

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?

Shoeper Shoe Challenge

I am a regular reader of shoeperwoman.com and followed her shoe challenge throughout 2010. Now for 2011 she will include readers. Basically all you do is declare how many pairs of shoes you have, and try and wear them all by the same time next year. This must (for those taking part officially) be proven by a picture you take wearing the shoes. It is a nice way of allowing you to enjoy all of your shoes rather than just rotating the same few over and over again, while the rest stay hidden and neglected. So, I have decided to enter this challenge starting with 14 pairs of shoes. Hopefully I can buy only shoes that I will actually wear. It will be lots of fun so please join. Here is where you sign up.

Tilapia Soup

I have been having some trouble with my camera lately. So for now, I either don't blog/post anything, or I have to use my phone, which I did for this post. So please excuse the picture quality, I'm still working out my lighting and angles.

I don't particulary like fresh fish soup, but my husband loves it. So, I decided to make him some Tilapia soup. It turned out so good, I ate most of it myself. Who woulda thought?!

Ingredients:

2 large Tilapia (scaled and cut into 3 or 4 pieces each)
5 Garden eggs
6 Tomatoes
2 Onions
10 peppers
Salt.

Sprinkle a level teaspoonful of salt over the fish and toss it so all the pieces get some. Leave it to marinate.

Cut off the stalks on the garden eggs then slice them in half, lengthwise. Peel the onions then place them along with the tomatoes (still whole), pepper and halved garden eggs into 1 litre of water, cover and boil.

The tomatoes will cook first. When they are soft and almost breaking apart, take them and the pepper out and blend till smooth. Sieve using a colander. Take out 3 of the 5 garden eggs and pour the pureed tomatoes back into the pot. Pour watr over the 3 garden eggs to cool them, then remove the skin and seeds.

By the time you have done this, the onions should be cooked, so you can add them to the garden eggs and blend them  together. This will not be sieved so be sure to blend them thoroughly, then pour the mixture into the pot.

Add the Tilapia and cover. Add more water if it looks too thick. Check the salt in the soup and add more if necessary. Boil it gently until the fish is cooked, about 10 minutes.

Serve it just as it is, with the garden eggs left in the soup.

You could also eat it with fufu, banku, yam, potatoes or rice.

Enjoy and let me know how you liked it.