Ghanaian cuisine

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Ghanaian cuisine refers to the

Ghanaian foods heavily rely on traditional food crops grown in Ghana, combined with crops introduced through colonial and globalized cuisine.

Main staple foods

The typical

• Akple, a traditional meal of the Ewe, is made with corn flour and can be eaten with pepper sauces, stews, or any soup. It is typically served with okra soup (fetridetsi) or herring stew (abɔbitadi). Akple is never prepared in the same way as banku. An important distinguishing factor between the two products is that banku requires the use of a special preformulated watery material called Slightly Fermented Corn-Cassava Dough Mix, cooked to a soft, solid consistency of corn-cassava dough, aflata, en route to a soft form of banku with further cooking, and the Slightly Fermented Corn-Cassava Dough Mix is never the signature material of any form of Akple product. A variety of akple, known as dzekple, is cooked with oil and meat, crab or fish.

• Banku was formulated by the Ga Dangme (or Ga) tribe of the Greater Accra Region as a slight deviation from the process of preparation of Ga-Kenkey, requiring a different manipulation of aflata mixed with cassava dough, but unlike Ga-Kenkey, it does not require the use of corn husk. One particular Major Clan of the GaDangme (or Ga) tribe is credited with the original recipe of the banku meal, even though it may be argued among the major clans.^[1] Sometimes only corn flour is used, but in many areas cassava dough is cooked together with the fermented corn dough.
• Fanti kenkey is wrapped in plantain leaves that give it a different texture. It is boiled for long periods into consistent solid balls.^[2]
• Banku cooked with cassava and corn dough mixture is called agbelimorkple by the Ewe people while the one without cassava dough mixture is known as Kutornu-kple (Cotonou banku)^[3]
• Mmore is cooked fermented corn dough without cassava, prepared like banku among the Akan people.
• Fanti people is Fante dokono, or Fanti kenkey, which is wrapped with plantain
  leaves that give it a different texture, flavor, and colour as compared to the Ga kenkey. Both are boiled for long periods into consistent solid balls.
• Tuo zaafi is a millet, sorghum or maize dish originating from Northern Ghana.^[4]
• Fonfom is a maize dish popular in south-western Ghana.^[5]
• Abolo, which is prepared by steaming corn dough and sugar mixture is a delicacy among the Ewes. It is eaten with various soups or sauces.
• Yoroyoro is widely eaten across Dagbon and many parts of Northern Ghana. It is made by boiling maize until it is softened. The food is eaten with pepper and onions.
• Nkyekyeraa is a Ghanaian dish made up of dry corn and few groundnuts, which is mostly found in the Bono, Bono East and Ahafo regions. It is usually wrapped in corn leaves or a fresh leaf and boiled till it becomes soft enough chewing easily.^[6]

Foods made with rice

• kidney beans
  .
• Omo Tuo/Rice ball—sticky mashed rice, often eaten with groundnut or palm nut soup.
• Plain rice—boiled rice accompanies many of the variety of red stews.
• Jollof rice—rice cooked in a stew consisting of stock, tomatoes, spices, and meat boiled together. This dish originated from the Djolof traders from Senegal who settled in the Zongos before the colonial period. Adapted for local Ghanaian tastes, it is typically eaten with goat, lamb, chicken, or beef that has been stewed, roasted or grilled.
• Fried rice—Chinese-style fried rice adapted to Ghanaian tastes.
• Angwa moo—also referred to as "oiled rice". This is unlike fried rice, in which the rice is cooked before frying. Oiled rice is cooked by first onion-frying the oil, then adding water after the onions have browned, giving the rice a different fragrance. The rice is then cooked in the water-oil mixture to give the rice an oily feel when ready. It may be cooked with vegetables or minced meat, added to taste. It is mostly served with earthenware-ground pepper, with either tinned sardines or fried eggs complementing it.

Foods made with cassava

• Kokonte or abete—from dried peeled cassava powder—is usually served alongside groundnut soup, consisting of a variety of meat such as tripe, lamb, or smoked served.
• Fufu—pounded cassava and plantains; pounded yam and plantain, or pounded cocoyam/taro. This side dish is always accompanied by one of the many varieties of Ghanaian soups.
• Gari is made from cassava. Often served with red red, a fish and black-eyed pea stew, or shito and fish.
• Ahanta, Nzema and Akan-speaking people of Ivory Coast
  .
• Ahanta, Nzema
  and Akan-speaking people of Ivory Coast.
• Yakayake, made from steamed grated cassava is a favourite among the Ewe people.It is eaten with various stews or soups.

Foods made with beans

A deviation from the starch and stew combination are Red red and tubaani, primarily based on vegetable protein (beans). Red red is a popular Ghanaian bean and fish stew served with fried ripe plantains and often accompanied with gari, fish, and pulses. It earns its name from the palm oil that tints the bean stew and the bright orange color of the fried, ripe plantains. Tubaani is a boiled bean cake, called moin moin in Nigeria.

• Koose

Foods made with yam

• Ampesie—boiled yam. It may also be made with plantains, cocoyams, potatoes, yams or cassava. This side dish is traditionally eaten with fish stew containing tomatoes, oil, and spices.
• Yam fufu—fufu made with yam instead of cassava, plantains, or cocoyam—is traditionally eaten with Ghanaian soup. It is popular in Northern and southeastern Ghana.
• Mpotompoto (yam casserole or porridge)—slices of yam cooked with much water and pepper, onions, tomatoes, salt and preferred seasoning.
• Yam balls - This super sweet delicacy takes the form of scotch eggs, but in this case, it has the fillings of meat pie, spring rolls, samosa, or shawarma.
• Fried Yam - Deep-fried yam can be served with a variety of stews and pepper sauces. The chips are fried such that the outside is crispy and the inside is wet, blissful, and yummy.^[8]
• Roasted Yam: This is one of the most popular street snacks. The white yam with brown bark is used to make this dish.^[9]

Soups and stews

Most Ghanaian side dishes are served with a

pepper sauce

)). Ghanaian stews and soups are quite sophisticated, with a liberal and delicate use of exotic ingredients and a wide variety of flavours, spices and textures.

Vegetables such as palm nuts, peanuts,

pulses

, may double as the main protein ingredient.

Beef, pork, goat, lamb, chicken, smoked turkey, tripe, dried snails, and fried fish are common sources of protein in Ghanaian soups and stews, sometimes mixing different types of meat and occasionally fish into one soup. Soups are served as a main course rather than a starter. It is also common to find smoked meat, fish and seafood in Ghanaian soups and stews.

oysters

.

Meat, mushrooms, and seafood may be

prekese) and bay leaf

are delicately used to achieve the exotic and spicy flavours that characterize Ghanaian cuisine.

traditional homes, for soap making, and by commercial (street food

) food vendors as a cheaper substitute to refined cooking oils.

Common Ghanaian soups are

palm nut soup,^[13] ayoyo soup and okra

soup.

Ghanaian tomato stew or gravy is a stew that is often served with rice or waakye. Other vegetable stews are made with kontomire, garden eggs, egusi (pumpkin seeds), spinach, okra, etc.

Among the Ewes, some soups are prepared with gboma (Solanum macrocarpa) and also yevugboma (European gboma). Water leaf) or ademe (jute mallow). These are eaten with the various varieties of akple, abolo (steamed corn dough) or yakayake (steamed cassava dough).

Breakfast

Most of the dishes mentioned above are served during lunch and supper in modern Ghana. However, those engaged in manual labour and a large number of urban dwellers still eat these foods for breakfast and will usually buy them from the streets. Another popular breakfast is called

hausa koko (northern porridge). It is usually prepared in Northern Ghana, is sweet, and often eaten with koose

or bread with groundnuts.

In large Ghanaian cities, working-class people would often take fruit, tea, chocolate drinks, oats, rice porridge or cereal (locally called rice water) or kooko (fermented maize porridge), and koose/akara or maasa (beans, ripe plantain and maize meal fritters).^[14] Other breakfast foods include grits, tombrown (roasted maize porridge), and millet porridge.^[14]

Bread is an important feature in Ghanaian breakfasts and baked foods. Ghanaian bread, which is known for its good quality, is baked with wheat flour and sometimes cassava flour is added for an improved texture. There are four major 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. Rye bread, oat bread and malt bread are also quite common.^[15]

Sweet foods

There are many sweet local foods that have been marginalized due to their low demand and long preparation process. Ghanaian sweet foods (or confectionery) may be fried,

steamed

.

Fried sweet foods include cubed and spiced ripe plantains (kelewele) sometimes served with peanuts.

farmer's cheese

) are fried Ghanaian savory foods (confectionery).

guinea fowl. Other roasted savoury foods include roasted plantains, maize, yam and cocoyam

.

Steamed fresh maize, yakeyake, kafa, akyeke, tubani,

tiger nut juice) are other savory foods. Gari

soakings are a modern favorite. It is a blend of gari (dried, roasted cassava), sugar, groundnut (peanut) and milk.

Beverages

In southern Ghana, Ghanaian drinks such as

refrigerated into what is in Ghana known as ice kenkey. In northern Ghana, bisaab/sorrel

, toose, and lamujee (a spicy sweetened drink) are common non-alcoholic beverages whereas pitoo (a local beer made of fermented millet) is an alcoholic beverage.

In urban areas of Ghana, drinks may include fruit juice,

aperitifs.^[29][30]

Street foods in Ghana

Street food is very popular in both rural and urban areas of Ghana. Most Ghanaian families eat at least three times a week from street food vendors, from whom all kinds of foods can be bought, including staple foods such as kenkey, red red and waakye. Other savoury foods, such as raw steak, boiled corn cob, boflot (ball float), and roasted plantain are sold mainly by street food vendors.

Ice kenkey is a popular chilled dessert sold by street vendors in open-air markets.^[31]

Kosua ne meko (eggs with pepper) is a street food sold mostly by street vendors.^[32]

Common Ghanaian dishes

• 
  Banku and grilled tilapia fish
• 
  Red-red: bean and fish stew with fried plantain
• 
  Beans, plantain, and chicken
• 
  "One Man Thousand": cooked shrimp and fried

  Tanganyika sardine
• 
  Ghanaian Kɔkɔ a y'atoto (nickname: Kofi Broke Man) charcoal-roasted ripe plantain
• 
  Ghanaian Banku Ne Mako (banku and pepper-tomato sauce)
• 
  Ghanaian style konkonte
• 
  Ghanaian fufu in palmnut soup with goat
• 
  Fufu and light tomato soup with meat
• 
  Fried yam with spicy chicken and kpakpo shito (ground green peppers)
• 
  Jollof rice with coleslaw and barbecue chicken
• 
  Kenkey with fried fish and chili pepper
• 
  Cooked yam and plantain, with "garden egg" (

  aubergine

  ) stew and chicken
• 
  Ghanaian style spicy sauce
• 
  Ghanaian style spicy grilled kebab
• 
  Waakye (rice and beans) served with spaghetti and boiled egg
• 
  Ground red pepper, a Ghanaian delicacy, mainly an accompaniment for banku and kenkey
• 
  Tubaani
• 
  Tubaani wrapped in the leaves of Ewe eran

See also

• Chop bar
• West African cuisine
• List of African cuisines
• La Tante DC10 Restaurant

References

1. ^ online reference, by J Dzeagu-Kudjodji and others; online publication: Banku, National of Ghana - EpersianFood ( Mar. 17, 2020 ) ; A grammatical sketch of Akra - or Ga-language ; etc.
2. ^ "Ghanaian Foods made with maize - Ghfinder". 4 April 2022. Archived from the original on 17 August 2023. Retrieved 17 August 2023.
3. ^ "How To Prepare Banku And Okro Stew In Ghana. » My Recipe Joint". My Recipe Joint. Retrieved 25 May 2020.
4. ^ "Ghanaian Foods made with maize - Ghfinder". 4 April 2022. Archived from the original on 17 August 2023. Retrieved 17 August 2023.
5. ^ "Ghanaian Foods made with maize - Ghfinder". 4 April 2022. Archived from the original on 17 August 2023. Retrieved 17 August 2023.
6. ^ Ali, Biiya Mukusah (1 March 2024). "'Nkyekyeraa' - Most sought after corn meal". Graphic Online. Retrieved 3 March 2024.
7. ^ "Bicolor Sorghum". www.specialtyproduce.com. Retrieved 22 March 2018.
8. ^ "Recipe Wednesday: 8 incredible dishes you can make with yam this Christmas". Prime News Ghana. 8 December 2021. Retrieved 17 August 2023.
9. ^ "Recipe Wednesday: 8 incredible dishes you can make with yam this Christmas". Prime News Ghana. 8 December 2021. Retrieved 17 August 2023.
10. ^ BetumiBlog: Search results for fante fante
11. ^ BetumiBlog: Search results for mpihu
12. ^ ^{a b} BetumiBlog: Search results for peanut butter soup
13. ^ BetumiBlog: Ghanaian Gourmet-Recipe No. 49, continued: Palmnut Soup Archived 12 October 2016 at the Wayback Machine. Betumiblog.blogspot.com (4 November 2010). Retrieved 30 November 2011.
14. ^ ^{a b} Kokoking: Food and nutrition Archived 5 October 2016 at the Wayback Machine. "KOKO KING :: Purveyors of Fine Foods". Archived from the original on 3 October 2013. Retrieved 11 October 2013.. Retrieved 11 October 2013.
15. ^ BetumiBlog: Ghana's Tea Bread Secrets Archived 24 April 2016 at the Wayback Machine. Betumi.com (5 March 2007). Retrieved 30 November 2011.
16. ^ Breads, Cakes and Pastries Archived 23 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine. Celtnet.org.uk (9 September 2007). Retrieved 30 November 2011.
17. ^ Snacks Maasa (Sweet Millet Fritters) Archived 21 September 2012 at the Wayback Machine. Celtnet.org.uk (9 September 2007). Retrieved 30 November 2011.
18. ^ selling pinkaso and kose | Flickr – Photo Sharing!. Flickr (16 September 2009). Retrieved 30 November 2011.
19. ^ "Alternative Bofroat (Ghanaian Doughnuts)". YouTube. Archived from the original on 22 December 2021. Retrieved 24 August 2012.
20. ^ BetumiBlog Archived 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine. Betumi.com (11 November 2006). Retrieved 30 November 2011.
21. ^ How To Make Ghanaian Peanut Brittle | Guide (4 Steps) "Wonder How To Archived 12 April 2012 at the Wayback Machine. Wonderhowto.com (9 June 2011). Retrieved 30 November 2011.
22. ^ Plantain Cakes (Tatale) Recipe from Ghana Archived 14 August 2011 at the Wayback Machine. Celtnet.org.uk (9 September 2007). Retrieved 30 November 2011.
23. ^ Gari Biscuits Recipe from Ghana Archived 3 January 2012 at the Wayback Machine. Celtnet.org.uk (9 September 2007). Retrieved 30 November 2011.
24. ^ Food in Ghana – Ghanaian Food, Ghanaian Cuisine Archived 27 October 2016 at the Wayback Machine. Foodbycountry.com. Retrieved 30 November 2011.
25. ^ "How It's Made 02 Plantain Chips". YouTube. Archived from the original on 22 December 2021. Retrieved 24 August 2012.
26. ^ Ghana foods Archived 2 April 2012 at the Wayback Machine. bsas.org.uk.
27. ^ Fan Milk Limited | Archived 8 September 2016 at the Wayback Machine. Fanmilk-gh.net (30 June 2011). Retrieved 30 November 2011.
28. ^ THE DIVESTITURE IMPLEMENTATION OF GHANA : The Divestiture Program Archived 2 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine. Dic.com.gh. Retrieved 30 November 2011.
29. ^ Kasapreko Company Limited produces alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages – an Accra, Ghana manufacturing company Archived 3 September 2011 at the Wayback Machine. Kasaprekogh.com. Retrieved 30 November 2011.
30. ^ Guinness Ghana Brewery Ltd. | Association of Alcohol Manufacturers and Importers^{[permanent dead link]}. AAMI. Retrieved 30 November 2011.
31. doi:10.1016/j.foodcont.2015.02.043
    .
32. ^ "Kosua ne Meko (Eggs With Pepper Relish) Recipe". NYT Cooking. Retrieved 26 August 2023.

Further reading

There are some cookbooks which concentrate on Ghanaian food, including the following:

• Osseo-Asare, Fran (2018). The Ghana cookbook. Barbara Baeta. New York: Hippocrene Books.
  OCLC 896840053
  .

External links

• Ghanaian food on Ghanaweb.com