Ghana

Ghana


And across we go to Africa.


Having only been to Morocco I had no idea what to expect with these dishes.


Avocado with peanut dressing


This country would be hard for anyone with a nut allergy or on a low fat diet.


While avocados have lots of the good fat (aka monounsaturated). But, in my opinion (which is just that and based off no study or knowledge in this area) you can have too much of a good thing which is why I only used half an avocado in this recipe since it was just Matt and I having dinner.


Paprika and cinnamon are an interesting combo and I was afraid I would not like it, but this was nice. I'm not sure I could eat a large amount of this salad (it's really just avocado and nuts) but it tasted good. The nuts added a nice crunch (might be interesting to add some chopped almonds in the mix) and the creamy-ness of the avocado was a nice complement to the warm stew.





Nkate nkwan (peanut soup)


To make the peanut soup, I used my favourite peanut butter - Pic's. If you ever get a chance to taste or try it, I'm sure you will want to buy it.


The soup itself was quite straight forward and really easy to make. I wasn't sure how tomatoes and peanut would work, but you couldn't really taste the tomato by the end and the peanut was not over powering.

Omo tuo (rice balls)

If you can recall my last entry, I mentioned my skills (or lack thereof) with rice. I used the white rice we had in the house which was a combination of jasmine and some other medium grain one. Surprisingly the rice balls came out alright and were relatively easy to roll.

The would definitely have to be in the stew / soup above (otherwise it's just a ball of rice with no real flavorings) so I'm not sure why these are separate recipes. Together those this was definitely up there in terms of my favourite dishes in the cookbook so far. It was perfect for the cold winter nights we have been having and the simplicity of the dish seemed in keeping with the country we were cooking.

Muhallabia (ground rice pudding


When I read saw this dish, I was quite surprised. I have seen this before but have always thought of it as a middle eastern dish, not an African one.


I had a look around my local shops for rosewater with no luck. I know there are some Persian shops on Dominion Road that would have likely had it (again being what I know to be as a middle eastern ingredient).


So when like gives you lemons, make lemonade. Or in this case, when life doesn't give you rosewater, make your own!


To make the rosewater, I went and picked a bowl full of rose petals from the roses in the garden. Knowing I wanted a nice color I used a combination of pink petals and white petals from 2 different varieties of rose. I have no idea what kind of roses we have in our garden - the pink ones are smallish and more bushy. They're currently growing along our fence. The white ones are the more traditional (English?) rose variety.


I then poured boiling water over the petals and let it infuse while on a low heat for about 15-20 minutes. I then strained the petals off and voila - rosewater!

I also tried to find ground rice. I saw lots of "rice flour" but in the absence of knowing whether it was what I needed I didn't get it. In the end, I took a blend of rices from the house (brown, medium grain white and jasmine) and ground them myself in my Vitamix.

This recipe of Muhallabia was quite thick and very filling. Interestingly a neighbour of ours who used to live in Dubai came over the next night. He tasted it and said while it was good, it was nothing like the one he knows of from Dubai, so perhaps it is truly an African version.