Ghanaian cuisine

Fufu with peanut soup and meat

Ghanaian cuisine is the cuisine of Ghana. There are diverse traditional dishes from each ethnic group, tribe and clan from the north to the south and from the east to west. Foods also vary according to the season, time of the day and occasion. Ghanaian main dishes unlike other cultures are organized around a starchy staple such as rice, fufu, banku / etew, kenkey/dokonu , tuozafi, dzidzii, akplidzii, yakeyake, eto, akyeke, etc with which a sauce or soup saturated with fish, snails, meat or mushrooms is served.

Main Staple Foods

The typical Ghanaian staples in the south include cassava and plantain. In the northern parts of the country, their main staples include millet and sorghum,. Yam, maize and beans are used across the country as staple foods. Crops such as peanuts and cocoyam are also important in the local cuisine. With the advent of modernization and colonialism, imported crops such as rice and wheat have been increasingly incorporated in Ghanaian cuisine. The foods below represent the different dishes made out of these staple foods.

Jollof rice

Woman preparing Fante kenkey (boiled maize dough)

Location of Ghana

Some of the main starchy dishes are:

• Fufu - pounded cassava and plantain or pounded yam and plantain, or pounded cocoyam/taro
• Banku/Akple - cooked fermented corn dough and cassava dough
• Kenkey/Dokonu - fermented corn dough, wrapped in corn or plantain leaves and cooked into a consistent solid balls
• Tuo Zaafi - a maize dish from northern
• Fonfom - a maize dish of the Ahanta and Nzema people in Southern Ghana
• Konkonte - from cassava powder
• Gari - made from cassava
• Omo Tuo - pounded rice staple of northern origins.
• Waakye - rice and beans
• Jollof rice
• Cooked plain rice with stew

Tilapia, fried whitebait (chinam), smoked fish and crayfish are all common components of Ghanaian dishes. The cornmeal based staples, banku and kenkey are usually accompanied by some form of fried fish (chinam) or grilled tilapia and a very spicy condiment made from raw red and green chillies, onions and tomatoes (pepper sauce. Banku and tilapia is a very popular combo served in most Ghanaian restaurants.

Other popular dishes include ampesie (boiled yam and unripe plantain) which is usually accompanied with kontomire, groundnut soup, or nyadowa (garden egg stew).

An alternative to the starch and stew combination is "Red Red", a very popular and easy to find dish. It is a bean stew served with fried ripe plantain. It earns its name from the palm oil that tints the stew and the bright orange color of the fried plantain.

Soups and stews

Most Ghanaian dishes are served with a stew or soup. Ghanaian stews and soups are quite sophisticated with liberal and adventurous use of exotic ingredients and a wide variety of flavors, spices and textures. Spices such as thyme, garlic, ginger and bay leaf; vegetables such as wild mushroom, garden eggs (egg plant), tomatoes and various types of pulses; beef, pork, goat, sheep, chicken, smoked meat and fish; crab, shrimp, periwinkles, octopus; bushmeat, snails, and duck; offal, trotters and cow skin are all featured in Ghanaian cuisine.

Palm oil, coconut oil, shea butter, palm kernel oil and peanut oil are important local oils used for cooking and frying. In certain soups, palm oil is the preferred oil for preparing it. Classic examples are okro stew, fante fante^[1], red red, egusi stew and mpihu / mpotompoto (taro porridge)^[2]. Coconut oil, palm kernel oil and shea butter were used for frying most local fried foods. However with the introduction of refined oils and negative media adverts targetted at these local oils, their use have become less popular. They are mostly used in few traditional homes, for soap making and by commercial food vendors to cut down cost on using the refined vegetable oils.

The most popular soups are groundnut soup^[3], light (tomato) soup^[3], kontomire (taro leaves) soup, palmnut soup^[4] and okra soup. Tomato stew or gravy is a popular stew which is often served with rice. Other vegetable stews are made with kontomire, garden eggs, egusi (pumpkin seeds), spinach, okra, etc. mixed with any protein of one's choice.[[]]

Usually rice is served with a soup or stew, kenkey is served with fried fish and hot pepper while banku is usually served with okra stew or soup and occasionally with tilapia. Fufu, akple and konkonte are served with soup.

Breakfast meals

Most of the popular dishes mentioned above are often served during lunch and supper in modern Ghana. However, it is not uncommon to find traditionally agrarian communities having these meals before farm work in the morning.

In large cities, working class people would often take tea, cocoa drink, oats, rice porridge (locally called rice water), kooko (fermented maize porridge) and koose/akara or maasa (rice and maize meal fritters). Other breakfast foods include ekuegbemi, oblayo(maize porridge), tombrown (roasted maize porridge) and millet porridge.

Bread is an important feature in Ghanaian breakfast and baked foods. Ghanaian bread which is known for its good quality in West Africa is baked with wheat flour and sometimes cassava flour is added for an improved texture. There are four types of bread in Ghana. They are tea bread (similar to the baguette), sugar bread which is a sweet bread, brown (whole wheat) bread and butter bread^[5].

Savory foods

There are many savory local foods which have been marginalized due to their demand and preparation process. Ghanaian savory foods may be fried, barbequed, boiled,roasted, baked or steamed.

Some popular fried savoury foods include cubed and spiced ripe plantain (kelewele) sometimes served with peanuts. Koose ( also called Acarajé or akara), maasa^[6][7], pinkaaso^[8], atsomo and bofrot (made from wheat flour); kuli-kuli^[9], zowey and nkate cake (made from peanuts)^[10]; krakro and tatale^[11] (ripe plantain fritters); kube cake and kube toffee (made from coconut); bankye krakro gari biscuit ^[12][13]and krakye ayuosu (made from cassava); condensed milk toffee, plantain chips and wagashi^[14] (fried farmer's cheese) are all fried local savory foods which are popular in some areas.

Kebabs are also popular barbecues and can be made from beef, goat, pork, soy flour, sausages and guinea fowl. Other roasted savoury foods include roasted plantain, maize, yam and cocoyam.

Steamed fresh maize, Abolo, Yakeyake, Kafa, Akyeke, tubani / moimoi (bean cake) and emo dokonu (rice cake) and esikyire dokonu (sweetened kenkey) are all examples of steamed and boiled foods whilst sweet bread, epitsi (plantain cake), ayigbe biscuit and meat pie^[15] similar to Jamaican patties or empanada are baked savoury foods.

Aprapransa, eto (mashed yam) and atadwe milk (tiger nut juice) are other savory foods which may undergo a combination of processes.

Beverages

Ghana has a wide variety of local beverages which pertain to various communities. In the south, local drinks such as asaana (made from fermented maize), akpeteshie (distilled local gin made from sugar cane) and palm wine extracted from the palm tree are common . In addition, a beverage can be made from kenkey and refrigerated into what is locally known as iced kenkey. Among northern communities, fula, bokina, bisaab / sorrel, toose and lamujee (a spicy sweetened drink) are common non alcoholic beverages whereas pitoo (a local gin made of fermented millet) is an alcoholic beverage.

In urban areas cocoa drinks, fresh coconuts, yogurt, ice cream, carbonated drinks, malt drinks and soy milk are popular^[16][17]. In addition, Ghanaian distilleries produce good quality alcoholic beverages from cocoa, malt, sugar cane, local medicinal herbs and tree barks. They include bitters, liqueur, dry gins, beer, and aperitifs^[18][19].

See also

Food portal

• African cuisine

References

1. ^ BetumiBlog: Search results for fante fante
2. ^ BetumiBlog: Search results for mpihu
3. ^ ^{a b} BetumiBlog: Search results for peanut butter soup
4. ^ BetumiBlog: Ghanaian Gourmet-Recipe #49, continued: Palmnut Soup
5. ^ BetumiBlog: Ghana's Tea Bread Secrets
6. ^ Nigerian Muffins (Masa) Recipe from Nigeria
7. ^ Sweet Millet Fritters (Maasa) Recipe from Mali
8. ^ selling pinkaso and kose | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
9. ^ BetumiBlog
10. ^ How To Make Ghanaian Peanut Brittle | Guide (4 Steps) « Wonder How To
11. ^ Plantain Cakes (Tatale) Recipe from Ghana
12. ^ Gari Biscuits Recipe from Ghana
13. ^ Food in Ghana - Ghanaian Food, Ghanaian Cuisine - popular, dishes, diet, history, meals, staple, rice, main, people, favorite, make, customs, fruits, country, vegetables, drin...
14. ^ http://bsas.org.uk/downloads/mexico/117.pdf
15. ^ Discussions :: View topic - I need the receipe for Meat Pie
16. ^ Fan Milk Limited |
17. ^ THE DIVESTITURE IMPLEMENTATION OF GHANA : The Divestiture Program
18. ^ Kasapreko Company Limited produces alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages - an Accra, Ghana manufacturing company
19. ^ Guinness Ghana Brewery Ltd. | Association of Alcohol Manufacturers and Importers (AAMI)

External links

• Ghanaian food on Ghanaweb.com