1st recipe -waakye and stew

Justlocs,Thandi,Meimeika, this is for you,recipe no 1, Enjoy.....


For the waakye(rice and black-eyed beans)

Take a small bag of black eye peas (beans)-about 300 gm, and add enough water to cover three inches above them. Add a large pinch of baking soda. In Ghana there are special leaves/sticks added to give a distinctive colour and flavour, but here in the west, we don't always have access to it, so baking soda does the trick. Boil until the beans are soft to the touch (not mushy, but soft). The water becomes a burgundy colour. Add about a teaspoon of salt then add enough rice about 400gm so it's 1 1/4 in under the water. Mix. Reduce heat to medium/low and cover for about 30 min, or until rice is finished cooking. You can cheat and use canned black-eye peas, as I have done before, but results are not the same. My personal trick is to add 2tbs of dark soy sauce and 1bs sesame oil for flavour and intensify the colour whilst rice/bean mixture is cooking but it's entirely optional.

For the Stew: You will need:1 tbs tomato paste(optional), 1 large onion sliced. 2 cans 435gm tomatoes, blended or chopped, 1 large stock (boulion)beef/chicken /vegetable cube, 1/2 finger ginger peeled and diced, 2 cloves garlic peeled and sliced, 1/4 tsp. Red chilli pepper, black pepper,salt/season all to taste., 1/4 cup vegetable oil. 1/2tsp Curry powder (optional). 1lb cubed meat (You can use chicken or fish).

If you are using meat....

(you can see the stew simmering away)

In a pan add the meat, garlic, ginger, 1/2 teaspoon of salt or season all, and enough water to cover all the meat. Stir all ingredients together and allow to boil until meat is tender to the bite. When meat is to your liking, fry it in heated vegetable oil , until crisp on the outside, but soft inside. This step is optional as not everyone likes their meat fried. DO NOT POUR THE WATER FROM THE BOILED MEAT AWAY. This will be used as a seasoning for your stew later.

For egg eating vegetarians.......

Boil some eggs and set aside.

In a different pan, add 2 generous tbs oil, and allow it to heat up on medium heat. Add onions and allow to fry for about 10 minutes. This will remove the water from the onions. Add the tomatoes and allow it to fry as well. Stir often, as you don't want the bottom to burn. Add the tomato paste. Mix into the onion/tomato mixture add some garlic, a little fresh chopped ginger and add about 1/2 cup of water(use water from the boiled meat if using meat.) add about 1/2 of the stock cube, 1/4 teaspoon of curry, and a little bit of the chilli pepper. Mix until it's dissolved. taste and add more pepper/seasoning if needed. Allow this to simmer until thickened, and there is a film of oil on top. Turn off the heat, peel and add boiled eggs.

Meat eaters........

Add the meat and most of the meat stock (from boiling)to the stew and stir so that meat is buried in stew. MAKE SURE YOU STIR FREQUENTLY. Allow to simmer until thickened and there's a film of oil . Keep stirring and add more water from the boiled meat if needed. Add seasoning to taste. It will be done, when it's thick with a browny-red colour.
This is usually accompanied on the side by SHITO sauce, which is a hot pepper sauce made from chillies and smoked dried shrimps and fish. You may be able to purchase it in a Ghanaian shop, but I do without it sometimes and it's just as tasty.