2. Peel (and deseed, if desired) the tomatoes. Put them in the (unwashed) blender or food processor and puree.
3. Heat oil in a large frying pan on medium heat for 2 minutes. Add pureed onion mixture and sauté for 5 minutes on medium-low heat.
4. Stir in the pureed tomatoes, ground red pepper, tomato paste, salt, and ½ cup water or stock (use the water to rinse out the blender container before adding it to the pan, if desired).
5. Simmer about 15 minutes on medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until the gravy has thickened to the desired consistency. Adjust seasonings. This “gravy” should be a thick sauce, too thick to pour.
Variations: Cooks often add their favorite seasonings to the gravy, such as a little ground nutmeg, white pepper, curry powder, or a crumbled seasoning cube.
Basic Stocks and Soups
Most soups in Ghana start with a basic stock. There are three main foundations for Ghanaian soups and some stews. The cornerstone of them all is a simple broth or stock that is the basis of what are called “light soups.” It contains no added fats, and is a broth made from poultry, meat and/or fish, onion, tomato, chili pepper, salt, probably garlic and ginger, and sometimes other seasonings. (Timesaver hint: In most cases, a commercially produced meat, poultry, fish, or vegetable stock can be substituted.)
The second stock is for “groundnut soups,” or what might be better called “peanut soups” in the U.S. (Peanuts, legumes that grow in the ground, are called “groundnuts” in England and Ghana was once a British colony.) In Ghana, where fresh milk and cream are not readily available, the basic soup stock is often thickened with creamy roasted and pounded peanuts.
The third basic soup category is those with a palm butter base, made from the pulp of the red palm fruit, known as “palmnut soups.”
After mastering a basic “light soup,” one can confidently proceed to make any of the soups in this book. Lovely Light Soup with Goat is the first soup I learned to make in Ghana, when I was in my early 20s, so I have presented it here for you to try. It is still hard to beat. It is a basic stock made from vegetables and goat meat. Other broths may be made substituting poultry, beef, or fish, including bones, singly or in combination, and the seasonings may vary depending on personal preference.
Lovely Light Soup with Goat
Apɔnkye Nkrakra
Makes 6 to 8 servings
This recipe is adapted from a version served at Flair. This simple version is hard to beat. No added fats, either, it is the original “lite” soup. I enjoy it best with some Fufu (Ghana-Style Dumplings, page 190). Ahhhhhh! It should be called “Goat Light Soup for the Soul.”
Ingredients
1 pound goat meat with bones, cut into chunks
1 large or 2 or 3 medium whole tomatoes
1 onion, peeled and quartered
Fresh whole red chili pepper to taste (your choice, see chart page 37; try using just a slice of a Scotch bonnet or 1 whole jalapeno if not used to cooking with chili peppers), trimmed and seeds removed if desired; or ⅛ teaspoon or more dried ground red pepper
1 tablespoon tomato paste
Meat Seasoning
1 heaping teaspoon grated fresh ginger
2 or 3 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
½ teaspoon ground aniseed (sekoni) or other seasoning of your choice
1 to 2 teaspoons salt or seasoning of your choice (many Ghanaians would likely use Adobo or other seasoned salt and Maggi or Royco seasoning cubes)
½ to 1 teaspoon dried ground red pepper (or to taste)
2 small bay leaves, left whole
½ cup chopped onion
1 small jalapeno pepper (mild); or 1 small cayenne pepper (medium); or 1 habanero (hot); or 3 kpakpo shito peppers (hot); or ¼ to ½ teaspoon dried red pepper to begin (or to taste), optional
Directions
1. Put the goat meat in a large soup pot and add all of the meat seasoning ingredients and ½ cup water. Stir well. Cover, bring to a boil, lower the heat and let the meat simmer while preparing the broth.
2. Bring 4 cups of water to a boil in another large pot. Slice the top off the chili pepper. Add the whole tomatoes, quartered onion, and chili pepper, and simmer 10 minutes or just until the vegetables are soft. Remove the vegetables with a slotted spoon and grind in a blender or asanka. If desired, discard the chili pepper or deseed it and slice and grind with the other vegetables, gradually adding the slices little by little till you have the desired heat. Return the ground vegetables to the water in the pot and add 4 more cups of water. Stir in the tomato paste. Pour the broth mixture into the pot with the seasoned meat.
3. Let the soup simmer until the goat meat is tender (this may take several hours as goat meat tends to be tougher than beef).
4. Optional Step: To make a clearer soup, once the goat meat is tender, remove the goat meat with a slotted spoon and strain the broth through a sieve into a large pot or bowl, using a spoon if necessary to help force some of the ground vegetables through the sieve (scrape the underside of the strainer with a spoon also), then return the meat and broth to the pot and adjust the seasonings (salt, onion, tomato, dried red pepper, etc.) to taste. Add a little more water if necessary.
Variations:
Cook some eggplant or zucchini in a saucepan, then blend and add near the end for a thicker soup.
Add other vegetables like okra or mushrooms; and/or add other herbs or seasonings depending on what you have on hand.
PART II: RECIPES
SNACKS, STREET FOODS & APPETIZERS
PLANTAINS
Plantains, those large, starchy relatives of the bananas we eat in North America, must be cooked before eating. This book contains recipes for them at all stages: green and hard, yellow and soft, and black and yellow and almost “reddish” when “over-ripe.” Ghana is reportedly the largest producer of plantains in West Africa—only Uganda and Rwanda are said to produce more on the continent. In Rwanda, plantains, sometimes called “cooking bananas,” are an important dietary staple and have been called “potatoes of the air.” Perhaps this is because, like potatoes, they are a major starch eaten with meals and they grow on trees rather than in the ground. Major growing areas in Ghana are the Eastern, Ashanti, and Brong-Ahafo regions.
COCOYAMS (TARO)
A variety of the tropical plant taro (Colocasia esculenta) is called “cocoyam” or “mankani” in West Africa. Both its leaves and the root (called a corm) are edible. Cocoyams can be peeled and thinly sliced and fried following the same procedure as for Green Plantain Chips (opposite page). They are slightly harder to slice because they are more slippery when peeling and slicing, but worth the effort. Use one small cocoyam per person. I usually buy cocoyams at an Asian market. They should be fresh, firm, hard, and hairy, with rings around the corm and no sprouts. Cocoyam chips have a different flavor and texture than potato chips, though they are also mild. As with plantains, the thinner the chips are cut, the crispier they are. I make mine paper thin, using a Y vegetable peeler.
When my husband and I were (literally) poor graduate students