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Even more random photos – Ghanaian food edition!

Ei, this “clearing my phone of random photos” thing that I started long ago, I’m still at it. Sorry for occasional visitors of this blog. It’s not that I don’t eat oo, it’s not that I don’t cook oo, it’s just that I’m often too lazy to post the results here. You have to put the recipe steps and photos in the proper order, write everything in an understandable way, post it, then come back again and post some more, etc. My hat is off to consistent food bloggers. It is NOT easy.

In contrast, just posting random photos of food is something anyone can do. Even me, haha. So here are some more photos of food I ate/people sent to me. Let me clear them all and make space for proper things. And I will post some actual recipes one of these days. I made some very good spicy cucumber pickles the other day, for example.

Enough about that. On with the random photos.

Fufu. It’s those two round balls over there, a sticky mess of pounded yam/plantain/cassava/cocoyam. A Ghanaian staple dish I’ve never really liked, but my house people loooove the stuff. Based on the plate, this picture came from my brother, I think? On the left side is some light soup to dip the fufu in. Floating on top is some pepper, fish, okro, garden eggs… all things I don’t like. Hard pass on this one.

Kenkey and sardine and pepper. Now you’re talking my language. I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned before that this used to be one of my favorite “Go to” dishes when I didn’t feel like cooking/eating what was cooked. Even now I still eat it once or twice a week, despite the inevitable heartburn.

You know as kids, we were given only a single sardine from the tin and we had to make it last for the whole ball of kenkey, it was crazy. Now I’d prefer to eat two/three sardines and save the rest for a sandwich, but whenever I do that someone always steals my sardine from the fridge. So I just eat the whole tin like the bourgeois pig that I am.

Definitely not my picture! Someone’s dressed-up, fancy frou-frou version of kenkey, pepper sauce and sausages. Not gonna lie, it looks great. Like something you’d serve to your in-laws to let them know that you’ve been to school some. 😀 Or something a fancy Ghanaian restaurant would serve. The photo looks a bit touched up in Photoshop, but still a very appealing meal. Please leave a comment if you know the source.

Fante kenkey with pig trotter stew, a.k.a nane fɔlɔ. One of my mother’s favorite stew. The pig trotters tend to be heavily salted, while some variants of fante kenkey contain no salt at all (Ga kenkey is pretty salty as well). Put the two together and you get the faint sweet-and-sourness of the fante kenkey matching well with the spicy, salty trotter stew. Truly a match made in heaven.

Could have sworn I’d posted this before, but this is otor (otɔ), a festive food Ga people eat on their birthdays. Not strictly on the calendar birthday but on the weekday closest to their calendar birthday. E.g. if you were born on Wednesday March 10th, you would eat your otor on the first Wednesday after March 10th. People don’t adhere to it that strictly though.

The dish is just a simple blend of boiled yam, red palm oil, salt and onions. Boiled egg is definitely not optional! As far as I know, nobody just eats otor for fun, even though it’s tasty and filling. Somehow the “birthday food” idea is too deeply ingrained in our heads.

Now for a change of pace, something sweet. This must have come from my brother as well, because I haven’t eaten these in a while. If I’m not mistaken, they’re called “monkey’s tails” a.k.a. adun le in Ga. They’re a sweet crunchy snack, but I have zero idea what goes into them. I used to eat them as a kid in La, but I haven’t had any in decades. These look very pale though, maybe underfried?

Another favorite snack of Ghanaian kids: yoryi! (yɔɔyi in Ga). Apparently its English name is “velvet tamarind” or something crazy like that, I dunno. Wiki says it’s called Dialium cochinchinense and is currently endangered, which is sad to hear. We used to love them as kids, and they’re in season right now so I expect to see them in the marketplaces. Especially now that there’s a fad going around claiming it has all kinds of health benefits. Ghanaians and their health fads. Yoryi is just yoryi, eat it quietly and be happy!

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More random food photos from who knows where

I really should take the time to sort through my WhatsApp and other accounts and get rid of all unnecessary photos. I’m sure I have at least 2000 “Good morning” pictures alone.

Kkakdugi – Korean fermented radish

This is kkakdugi – a Korean dish of fermented radish. It’s just like kimchi, but instead of cabbage you use cubed daikon or Korean radish instead. I’ve made kimchi lots of times, with varying results, so I decided to mix things up with this kkakdugi. I can’t remember when I made it, but I remember it was fairly tasty. It’s just that it’s not as versatile as kimchi because of the cube shape, so I haven’t bothered to make any since.

My usual beloved kenkey, shitor (black pepper sauce) with fried fish. Why did I take a photo of something I used to eat regularly? Kenkey >>>> banku. Growing up I didn’t really like shitor, but as I grew up my tastes changed. Or maybe I finally encountered quality shitor that changed my mind. Sometimes it’s not that you don’t like a certain food but rather you haven’t had it properly made before. I didn’t like fried fish either… still don’t, but I can tolerate it. And it does go well with kenkey

Speaking of banku, here’s a random banku shot with more fried fish:

With red pepper this time. “Shitor” is just the Ga word for pepper, so in my house we make a distinction between shitor ni ashi (black pepper sauce, literally “fried pepper”) and shitor ni akpo (red pepper sauce, literally “ground pepper”). I vastly prefer the latter, but the former is more popular AFAIK.

Enough from me, let’s clear out photos people sent to me.


Breakfast? I believe my sister went on some kind of trip around the UK and sent it to me. Even the fancier Ghanaian hotels won’t give such general quantities and varieties of preserved meats. You’ll be lucky if you get a chicken frankfurter and La Vache qui Rit.

Umm… again I can’t remember the source of this. It might have been from my brother’s trip to Lebanon. I say that because of the greens in the foreground. He complained that the cuisine was “full of leaves,” it was so funny XD. I could be wrong, though. It could be just steak and potatoes with a side salad.

I remember this one. My sister randomly ordered sushi for delivery. Of course this is in the UK, not Ghana. You can’t get cheap, affordable sushi for delivery around here, especially not a package looking this fresh and tasty. Ebi te yie (some people are doing well!).

Don’t quote me on this, but I think my brother had a try at making quesadillas? It has the crunchy look, and I think I see a sneak peek of cheese? I wouldn’t know though, because even before I discovered I was lactose intolerant, I disliked cheese.

I have NO idea what this is. I’m guessing some kind of dessert? Where did the picture even come from? I can’t remember. The powdery thing… Soybean flour? It’s too white. Yah anyway, anyone who knows what it is, let me know.

I have more random pictures to post, but this is enough for one day. Stay safe everyone!

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Scallion pancakes and cabbage pancakes

In a previous post, I mentioned that I’ve been making all kinds of vegetable pancakes. I gave an example about zucchini pancakes and mentioned that I have pictures of others I’ve made. Today I finally got round to digging them out of my hard drive, so here they are.

First, scallion / green onion pancakes. Scallions and green onions are the same thing, depends on who you’re talking to. For just 1 cedi at Agbogbloshie you will get a ton of them, and they’re good for cooking fried rice, adding to an omelet, making various stir fries, etc. But when they’ve been in the fridge for a while and you’re out of ideas, just chop them up small, add flour, salt, pepper and fry them up as a pancake.

Green onions burn easily, but they taste fine even when browned like this, so it’s no big deal. TBH the taste of these scallion pancakes is a bit bland, so you’re better off making Chinese-style crispy pancakes with the same ingredients. Either that, or add other ingredients to make this a more exciting dish. But for a quick and easy breakfast, this is one of my commonly made ones.

Next, cabbage pancakes. I’ve only made them once, because they didn’t turn out looking too great. I think I got lazy and cut the cabbage into large pieces, so the whole thing came out chunky. If you want to make it, try shredding or mincing the cabbage really finely.

I’m seeing some flecks that suggest I added some chili pepper flakes and maybe onion? Onion really lifts these pancakes to the next level, so add a little if you can.

First, the correct way to fry cabbage pancakes, or any pancake with chunky ingredients. A little bit at a time, and slowly so that the heat goes all the way through. The cooked batter will still be soft, but it will be cooked all the way through. And you will get a vaguely presentable-looking pancake. Now for the wrong way to cook cabbage pancakes:

A certain lazy and greedy food blogger put a heaping amount of batter in the pan because she was hungry and wanted to finish frying quickly. Unless you’re a master of flipping pancakes, it will all fall apart when you try to turn it over. AND it will still take forever to cook.

 

Exhibit B. Nicely browned, and almost completely cooked. I thought I had flipped this picture before uploading it but I guess I messed up somehow.  In retrospect, instead of letting it fall apart like that, I should have deliberately divided it into four nice quarters.

The final result. It looks like a strange omelet, doesn’t it? But no, it’s a cabbage pancake. I think it would look better if it browned even more, but it’s been long eaten and digested so that’s that. I can’t remember what the sauce was, but based on the looks, I’m guessing it was chili oil, soy sauce and vinegar. When I put chili oil into the fridge, my house people think it is shitor, so they lap it up like soup. I’m thinking of making my own, but that’s a topic for another day.

In conclusion, I like veggie pancakes a lot, so I’ve been experimenting with different ingredients and ratios for a while. If you’re trying to get more vegetables into your diet, or if you just want to try something new, give them a try and see how they work for you.

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Zucchini pancakes!

In Korea there is a dish called “yachaejeon” (야채전) which literally means “vegetable pancake.” You mince or chop veggies finely, add a little flour and some seasonings to taste and then fry them up. In Ghana we’re used to pancakes being a sweet food, but once you try it and season it to your liking, you’ll have a whole new item to add to your repertoire.

I made these zucchini pancakes as an experiment to see how they tasted, and they were great. If you don’t have zucchini, you can use pretty much any other vegetable. Onions, carrots, cabbage, mushrooms, even the dandelion you find growing in your backyard. It can be just one veggie, it can be a mix of veggies, you can throw in some seafood or an egg or two for binding. The only things that don’t work too well are wet veggies like tomatoes and cucumbers, but there might be a way to make them tastier.

Recipe (of sorts)

-Finely chopped, minced or grated veggies

-Enough flour and water to form a pourable batter. Be careful with the water because some vegetables like zucchini and cabbage release water as they sit.

-Add an egg for better binding if you wish. I usually add one for protein

-Add a little salt, sesame oil, black pepper, other condiments to taste. Leave out anything you don’t want except the salt. I usually chill the batter in the fridge for an hour or two to allow the flavours to meld and develop. It’s a tip I picked up from a blog, but whether it really works or not, who knows?

-Heat up a pan with a little oil, add a ladle of pancake batter and fry on both sides until crisp.

The insides will still be moist and fluffy because of the moisture content in the vegetables, so don’t think about getting the whole thing dry.

This almost-burnt one is for my mom, who is of the Ghanaian persuasion that food must be cooked and cooked and cooked aaa until it can’t be cooked any more. And then cook it a little more just in case.

Enjoy with whatever sauce you like. In the blue bowl I have a mix of soy sauce and vinegar, my preferred dipping sauce for savory Asian dishes.

But instead of soy sauce and vinegar, you can use ketchup, salad dressing, chili oil, shitor, or just enjoy it plain. A word of caution: it doesn’t taste as good when cold or reheated, so eat it as fast as possible. You can also store the batter in the fridge for at least a day, so fry it up when ready to serve. Enjoy~

I should have other pictures I’ve taken of other vegetable pancakes that I’ve made, so I’ll post them whenever I find them. See you then!

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Clearing random food pics from my computer

Exactly what it says in the title. Sometimes I have random pictures I took, or photos someone sent me over WhatsApp, or photos I have no idea how I got. Once in a while I clear out my phone and delete them, but since I have a handy food blog that I rarely post on, I might as well post them here before I delete them.

My sister sent me this photo of a “Coconut Cashew Crunch” snack she found for sale at Shoprite. She knows I love coconuts and I love cashews, and she said it was delicious. I think the price was around 20 Ghana cedis, but that was like 5 years ago so it’s probably 40 cedis or more now. For that price I can buy about 20 “akpenator” coconuts, or 20 fresh coconuts. Or 20 lone cashews, because cashews are expensive, haha. Anyway I’ve never tried this product because the ingredients are so cheap, but the packaging is great and I’m told it tastes nice. Try it if you get the chance.

Random sausages my sister bought from a place called “Tea Baa.” It is (was?) a cafe style place she visited a few times and said they had decent sausages. And yeah, they weren’t bad. Just that they contained a lot of water, as you can see in the pan, so they looked deceptively plump. The taste was okay, actually better and less “chemical” than many sausages I’ve tried locally. Unfortunately I don’t know where they were sourced apart from Tea Baa, so I can’t tell you.

Every once in a while, a human being just wants to chew meat. In fact I once had a business idea to run a stall that sells just grilled and roasted meat, and lots of it. Maybe one or two sides, but really just meeeeaaaaat. You can take the idea if you want, just send me some kickbacks.

Anyway, this fine steak you see here was bought from Shoprite some years ago. Was it beef? Was it pork? I think it was pork because it was delicious and tender despite being cooked so thoroughly. I covered it in jerk sauce and marinated it for an hour or two before cooking, soooo yummy. Since then I’ve had some very dodgy and stinky meat from Shoprite so I’m not so hot on buying their meat any more. But this one was a good experience.

When you walk right into Shoprite at Osu, there’s a small display with goods that have almost reached their sell by date. It’s a good opportunity to pick up cheap sauces, condiments and other foods you wouldn’t normally touch. I think this Spicy Tikka Masala cost about 10 cedis? Very cheap, nothing to lose at that price. I’ve bought other sauces for around that cost as well, like salad dressings and Ina Paarman dressings and stuff. Some were hits, some were misses, either way for 10 cedis it’s a bargain.

This was some years ago, though, so I don’t remember the taste clearly. I know for a fact it wasn’t spicy at all. What I did with it… I put some on chicken and roasted it in the oven. Maybe I didn’t add enough because it tasted pretty bland. You’re better making your own, really, unless you can get it on sale like I did.

Saving the best for last, these Baresa garlic-stuffed olives were the bomb! My sister and I are still talking about them years after they’ve been eaten and digested and become part of the food chain. They were just that delicious. Sharp, tangy, garlicky, refreshingly good! If you like pickles even just a little, if you like garlic even a tiny bit, get these for sure and try them.

As for where to find them… honestly I can’t say. These were a gift from a relative in the UK (thanks so much Bro. E!). I think they can be found at Lidl, if you have anyone coming down. Alternatively, now that there are so many foreign grocery stores like Citydia and Farmer’s Market etc, you might get lucky and find some there. If you do, buy 10 bottles. You won’t regret it!

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Recipe pictures from a magazine

Back in 2016 I was doing my hair at a salon when I came across some recipes in a magazine. Which magazine? I can’t remember. But the recipes all looked tasty and low-fuss, so I whipped out my old phone and took pictures of them.

It’s been 4 years and I haven’t made a single one. It’s only a matter of time before I lose them to a hard drive format or something like that. Before that happens, it’s better for me to share them here. That way, others can make them and benefit from them. And who knows, maybe I’ll make them someday. After COVID is over and I can actually go shopping for some of those foods, that is.

In fact, I have a pet theory that one of the keys to saving money in Ghana is acquiring a taste for local fare… and only local fare. Imported foods are expensive! But that’s a discussion for another day. Enjoy the recipes and let me know how it turns out if you make one!

Asian beef tacos with quick pickles (you’ll have to find substitutes for some of the ingredients like the radishes)

Spicy Grilled Salmon (the prices of salmon at the supermarkets will turn your stomach even before you can eat this)

Chicken Caprese (very cheap and doable as long as you leave out the mozzarella)

Shrimp and Zucchini Scampi (some vegetable stands sell zucchini, calling it “squash”. Shrimp is expensive though)

Chicken Cacciatore (Oh, I’ve made this before, minus the orzo. It’s just chicken tomato stew. But tasty!)

Lowcountry Skillet (maybe substitute something for the kielbasa)

Sweet potato, bean and rice soup

Pork cutlets with white beans and roasted peppers

Easiest ever pastry dough

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Taiwanese Three Cup Chicken recipe (not exactly authentic)

Actually it’s a bit hard to define “authentic” when it comes to Chinese food, because they have the same principle as Africans when it comes to cooking: just put everything in and adjust to taste. None of this measuring left and right stuff. The theory is that Taiwanese Three Cup Chicken is called “Three Cup” because it takes a cup each of rice wine, soy sauce, and sesame oil, but in practice how much to add of each is up to you.

The recipe I sort-of followed, sort-of was inspired by is Bob’s Your Uncle’s version:

Bob’s Your Uncle is a Cantonese cooking channel I used to watch to listen to Cantonese and learn simple recipes. Content warning: he’s a bit vulgar in some of his videos. I say “used to watch” because for the past year or two he’s just been posting cruise ship reviews and travel videos, which aren’t really my thing. But his older videos are good for a watch and most of the food looks easy to make.

Enough with the intro, let’s get down to cooking! Except… it’s been over a year since I made this recipe, so I’ve forgotten all the precise proportions I used. Wait, I shouldn’t lie. I didn’t use any proportions. I just used whatever I had in the house:

accrafoodie taiwanese three cup chicken 1

For example, most recipes call for Thai basil or any other basil, but I don’t have any basil so… I substituted our local herb known as “kowɛ.” It’s a variety of mint but hey, it’s green and it’s leafy just like basil so… yeah. Also I only had a sprig instead of the massive quantities used in the recipe so that’s another change. In the video Bob also finished up by cooking everything in a clay pot, but I don’t have a clay pot so my little skillet had to do. African cooking man, just throw it all in.

Ingredients I used: Chicken thighs, soy sauce, mint (kowɛ), oyster sauce, onions, ginger, garlic, pepper, sesame oil, rice wine, green onions (I happened to have some on hand so why not?), jerk sauce (ditto), a little mirin (ditto). BTW you can find all the stranger ingredients like oyster sauce and sesame oil at a Chinese grocery store like Great Wall Supermarket at Danquah Circle or Jiahua Agricultural somewhere in Osu, I forget where.

Process: I marinated the chicken thighs in a bit of soy sauce and oyster sauce for about an hour before cooking.

  1. Brown the chicken in a little oil (if you marinate it like I did, it will already be brown, but fry it up for extra flavor anyway)
  2. Take out the chicken and set it aside on a plate
  3. Add sesame oil to the pan and fry the sliced ginger and garlic gloves for a minute or two, until fragrant
  4. Add the sliced onions and fry briefly, then add all the chicken back in.

5. Time to season to taste with the extra soy sauce, oyster sauce, jerk sauce, mirin (many recipes call for rock sugar, but mirin is a sweet Japanese condiment so it’ll do), rice wine (optional IMO if you can’t take alcohol) the leftover marinade, anything else you can throw in.

6. Once you’re happy with the taste, toss in the fresh herbs like kowɛ and stir them in, then lower the heat, cover the pan and cook it for 10-15 minutes until the chicken is cooked through. You can add a tiny bit of stock or water if it’s too dry, especially if you skip the rice wine.

7. Taste, adjust final seasoning and serve on a bed of hot, freshly-cooked rice.

It’s really easy to make, TBH with minimal chopping as long as you have the ingredients already on hand.

The only draw back is that the color is a bit dark, so for extra attractiveness serve some greens or salad on the side. I haven’t tried this with substitutes like beef, pork or tofu, but the basic seasoning should work with any other protein. Give it a try and enjoy!

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Random breakfast photo (tea bread and salad)

I don’t even remember making this one, so maybe I was just hanging around and someone called me to eat breakfast and this is what was available. That salad, especially. A lazy person like me wouldn’t have time to make a salad like that. And the tea bread doesn’t look too fresh – you can tell by the way the ends broke off instead of pulling out all stringy like with fresh bread. Ei. Beggar with a choice. I’m sure this breakfast was delicious with some hot tea (tea-tea, not milo-tea) with not too much milk. Ah, I wish I could have it again.

Enough reminiscing. Next time I’ll have a recipe for Taiwanese Three Cup Chicken!

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Mushroom omelette – or at least I tried!

I like eggs. They’re cheap and tasty and can be cooked in 2 minutes or less. In a pinch some people eat them raw, but I’m not that hardcore yet. And even picky kids can be coaxed into eating a fried egg or two, so it makes a good bribe.

I also like mushrooms. Not as much as eggs, but they’re supposed to be really good for you and we have a regular oyster mushroom supplier, so I eat them quite a bit. Most often as a meat substitute in a quick gravy when all my meat is frozen or I just can’t be bothered to fiddle with meat.

So you put the eggs and the mushrooms together and you get a mushroom omelette! Or omelet, if you’re American. In the past I’ve experimented with slicing the mushrooms really small and beating them into the omelette, but I didn’t quite like the taste. It still seemed a bit undercooked, and rather flavorless. So this time I had a new idea. First prepare the ingredients as usual:

Mushrooms, onions, eggs, pepper, salt, any other seasoning you wish to add. I then fried up the onions and mushrooms with the seasonings:

Just a few minutes over medium heat so the mushrooms are a little wilted and soft but the onions still have some crunch. Then I started beat the eggs with some salt and pepper and poured it into the pan:

This was where I was supposed to put the mushrooms on top of the egg and fold it over. I would have liked the middle to be slightly creamy and the outside not too dry, but I think I left the heat on too long. It still turned out relatively nice:

But it was more like a plain omelette wrapped around a mushroom filling rather than a mushroom omelette. I.e. I didn’t get that mix of egg and mushroom I wanted, each is still very much its own entity. It was still delicious though. Went great with some hot buttered toast and tea. And a very good time was had by all. If/when I get a better camera I’ll attempt this recipe again and see if I can get it just the way I like it. Until then!