A little midnight snack...

So I'm doing two things at once right now: listening to the radio, writing a new post for the blog as well as keeping an eye out for my gorgeous chicken thighs that are bubbling away in the oven - that's three things in fact, I'm taking multi-tasking all the way here! I'm excited mainly because I got to use my Caan for the first time, which I'm doubting any of you will know what it is; well, it's a Ghanaian style pestle and mortar used for grinding together herbs and spices to make all manner of delicious marinades and sauces for meats and fish. It's a lot sturdier than the pestle and mortars you can find in town; sort of resembling a mini wok and will genuinely last a lifetime. As I only got the Caan tonight, I just couldn't wait to try it out, so I decided to throw together a little meal when I got home from the gym, not entirely West African I'll admit, but I've used some of my favourite ingredients and it's a complete doddle to make. I'm calling this my late night chicken - give to a go.

Stuff you'll need

500g boneless chicken thighs (the thighs offer so much more flavour!)
2 large garlic cloves
1 inch knob African or Caribbean ginger, standard ginger will suffice
1 long red chilli pepper
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 chicken or vegetable stock cube
1 teaspoon oil

1) Put the chicken in a bolwl and combine all the remaining ingredients in a pestle or mortar, or a Caan! (If you're lucky like me!)
2) Grind everything in a semi paste and combine with chicken and mix well.
3) Line a baking tray with oil and place the chicken on top, spacing apart evenly.
4) Cook in a preheated oven for 20 minutes on 180.
5) Gobble it down!

Moving on!

Yes, Hackney Homemade was fun and I've enjoyed selling my wares at this market for the past two months. I've met some great, inspiring people who have broadened my expertise and more importantly all the people who bought my stuff and gave it a passionate thumbs up have given me the boost I need to unleash myself to the wider community. I'm in the process of acquiring a new site, so be prepared! My little plantain set up, in both guises (sweet and hot) is moving on up! It'll be interesting to see how my products go down with a new crowd, and while I'm doing something altogether a bit niche, I believe it's that very reason that brought people over to my stand; the coconut yam biscuits were the best sellers week after week, which I'm pretty proud as it was quite a surprise initially. The show stoppers were a tie between supermalt brownies - dense, dark and sexy - and the plantain cupcakes with ginger frosting. I'm toying with some new recipes for my next venture that I'm excited about, so when everything's set and up and I'm raring to go, I'll let you all know where you can find me and my little red canopy. Bye for now.

Hackney Homemade

The details are simple: every Saturday local artisan producers of home-made food get together to sell their stuff on the church grounds opposite Hackney Central station - this is Hackney Homemade and it's rivalling some of the other more established set ups in the area, like the up and coming Chatsworth and the long running Broadway market in London fields, AND, I'm pleased to announce that Hot Plantain will be there as of this Saturday 22nd selling the sweeter side of things, so think cakes, biscuits, flapjacks, brownies all given a more exotic, ethnic twist. I'm incorporating all the great flavours of Ghana and West Africa to create some new and exciting goodies and you can be sure that plantains will be making an appearance in some format! I'm keeping pretty quiet about this, so you'll just have to make the schlep over to Hackney to investigate this fab market. I'll be following up with a post about my first day, complete with tempting photos. See you soon.

Turkey breast steaks with a peanut and chilli rub

This is the type of recipe most people enjoy - it smacks of the current food trend floating about -...insert appropriate cuisine...food made easy, 30 minute meals, quick tasty and delicious. Yes, we all lead busy lives, but I know for one, I love to spend hours in the kitchen, if time permits, getting stuck into some crazy recipe I pulled from some cook book. I guess my latest recipe came from watching Lorraine Pascale new BBC1 TV show - fast, fresh and delicious - yes, it's those darn culinary adjectives again! I often get home late and this recipe does live up to being tasty in the face of haste and late working hours - give it  a try and like this post, it's a quick one. Enjoy with plantain - of course.

Ingredients

300g lean turkey steaks or chicken steaks
1 teaspoon paprika
3/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
A handful of dry roasted peanuts

Prep:

1) Using a pestle and mortar, grind the peanuts into a relatively fine powder.
2) Add the remaining ingredients and mix thoroughly and cover the turkey breast with the mixture.
3) Grill the steaks on a medium setting for about 10 minutes and serve with roasted plantain and a green salad.

Changes...

Hi guys, I've been a very busy chap lately, what with moving house (major upheaval), job changes and other slight annoyances that make life what it is. But, we keep calm and carry on eating good food. I've had a whole gamut of great cuisine lately, from a delicious homemade Cambodian curry to tasty BBQ street food and I can't forget the continuing presence of African food that I see all around London (which reminds me, I must try that Ivorian place in Deptford). What this means I don't know, and food trends come and go; when it comes to what's hot on the media buzz list, its about 'being out there',take the surging popularity of Brixton market. I think good solid food, whether 'on point' or not will always prevail, which can only be a good thing. Look out for me, somewhere soon!

I'll be back soon with some more fab recipes...and spread the word!

Crispy paprika plantain chips

I've cooked plantain in all its guises from plain and boiled to roasted to deep fried in hot spices - but I seem to return to my good old fail safe: the chip...or crisp...either way, they're damn tasty and perfect for mid-week snacking. Let me share my recipe with you and I defy you to return to Walkers after munching through a bowl.

Ingredients:

1 or 2 medium sized hard plantains
250 ml of virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon hot cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon Cornish sea salt or equivalent

1) Start by cutting up the plantains into slices as thin as you can get them
2) Arrange in a bowl and then heat the oil in a pan until very hot (you can test the temperature by dropping in a slice; if it sizzles madly, you're all set!
3) Fry the chips in small batches( the secret to a really crisp chip is to space them out so they don't touch)
4) Once you've completed frying the plantain, transfer to a bowl and add the pepper. paprika and salt and give it a good mix!

You can give the chips more bite if you like by adding an additional 1/2 teaspoon of cayenne. I like to cool these chips down with a really simple lemon mayonnaise, which consists of the juice of half a lemon with a good dash of salt stirred into your fav mayonnaise.

Supper club night: Part 2

So my second attempt at cooking what I can only describe as West African fusion resulted in a mixed bag of friends and friends of friends dining at my Mum’s house last Saturday night. It was my mother’s suggestion of holding the event at her house, whether she wanted to witness with her own eyes that I could muster something more taxing than a poached egg (despite my mother hearing of the rousing feedback I got from the first supper night) or whether it’s because to her Peckham and dining just don’t sit comfortably together, I went along with the offer nonetheless, and besides, my mum could always pitch in and peel a yam or two?  I’d toiled and fussed around with the menu for sometime before the supper club and had it finalised well in advance. I even started preparing three days prior and the last thing I wanted was to start cooking when the guests had arrived – Come dine with me contestants should take note. So the order of service went as follows: -

Starter

Gold Coast Cocktail

Hot Plantain platter

Plantain bites

Mini beef kebabs

Akwaaba nuts

Tender battered gizzards

Main

Fish stew

Black rice

Spinach and carrot salad

Desert

Sweet yam ice cream

Banana fritters

The cocktails were a hit, of which the components have to remain a secret, needless to say, mixology isn’t my forte, but a few self taught lessons and I’m already thinking of a few more to add to my repertoire.  I loved how the plantain bites turned out – crisp and greaseless with a kick of pepper and ginger. Overall, the platter does take time to assemble, but it packs a punch both aesthetically and flavour wise. It would also work well served as nibbles at a party, so the next time I have a few friends round, I'm going to be sure to whip up my hot plantain platter. Equally, the main course - the fish stew - which consisted of snapper and cod combined with okra and sweet potato was fresh and modern while still retaining elements of traditional Ghanaian food.

The most experimental dish of the evening was the yam ice cream, certainly an acquired taste, my thoughts when creating this was to challenge the usual elements of Ghanaian food - savoury ingredients used under the guise of a sweet dish, keeping things creative by utilising spices and herbs uncommon in the staple soups and stews - it's all about thinking beyond conventions. I'm definitely running with this for awhile. 

So, now I retire to conjure up a new menu for the soon to be announced supper club three. If you fancy attending the next event, drop me an e-mail.

Preparations, musings and indecisions - cod vs snapper? Hmm...

Now, I've been counting down the days (and hours and minutes - literally) until I host my next supper club for six unsuspecting guests, for two reasons, I think; I love entertaining, as you're probably well aware, but namely because I've been itching to share the great menu I've created after much pen chewing deliberation: it's fresh, a little spicy, but most of all, I know my guests will leave plesantly stuffed with a cuisine that's new to them. It's pretty much the main reason I've joined the underground restaurant revolution - the need to share with people what I love doing most - cooking! I won't reveal too much about the menu, you'll have to tune in next week for a full, mouth watering review of all the delicousness that went down! Hint: chilli powder, plantains and chicken gizzards. Stumped? Yep, I thought so.

Anyway, all that aside, a fishy conundrum remains - do I use Cod or Red snapper for my main course? Opinions, please?

Christmas: it's that time

So it's here! Another year gets swallowed up in a fuzzy haze; you ponder retrospectively and consider your achievements during the last 12 months, if like me, a sudden case of 'What the *#!?!! have I done?' hits you square between the eyes, rest assured you're not alone. But one thing I always remember are all the fab meals I've had, recipes I've cooked and restaurants I've visited - and the new year always brings the giddy excitement of all the new places I wanna try, kind of like the anticipation of Christmas morning. So, what's everyone cooking for Christmas lunch? This year, I've been assigned the task of roasting a duck, which I hasten to add I've never done before, so it should be interesting if not a tad challenging. Roast duck, christmas pud and bucks fizz aplenty - that's my kind of Christmas! Well, have a great one, whatever you're doing and eat well and don't forget to check back for new posts in 2012!

Supper club night: Part 1

So, it came and went leaving me pondering and more convinced than ever that Ghanaian food has a place in the mainstream. Yes, granted a few things need to change to make it more accessible, but ultimately, it has potential because it's good, flavourful and interesting. In a world where we are becoming more inclined to seek out the more exotic and experimental, this is all pretty exciting for me.

Back to the events of Saturday evening. Being the organised person that I am, I had the menu sorted out weeks ago - I knew exactly what I wanted to cook for what would be the introduction to my supper club - something tasty but with impact. So, it went as follows:

Starter
Peanut soup

Main
Pimento roasted plantain
Supermalt basted pork chops
Stir fried okra

Dessert
Grapefruit ginger ice cream

My guests for the premier night of my supper club were all of Ghanaian extraction, which was an intentional decision, as I wanted to gauge the response from people already familiar with the cuisine. The feedback was great and fervently positive -namely being that something of this ilk is really needed to give West African cuisine the kudos it rightly deserves! I was of course extremely chuffed with all this praise showered on me, which led me to think of all the great things I could make for the next event.  All in all, a merry time was had by all, with great conversation flowing with each course. I'll also admit that my snazzy red and green Ghanaian print shirt was a hit, as was one of guests, who also chose to wear one - well keeping with the theme was the sartorial aim on my part for sure! Details for the next event will be posted shortly.

Mackerel and spinach stew

Call this my introduction into autumn; although at the moment the weather feels more like Takoradi Beach, Ghana, than Peckham, south London. The kids are back to school, the clothes are minimal, the chicken shops are full – it could only mean one thing, an Indian summer! The local markets are bursting with colourful, seasonal vegetables and my culinary senses are like a police radar racing down Cold harbour lane – well, that’s partly a lie – it’s never seasonal along Rye lane – it’s plantains, yams and red snapper all year round. I did pick up some Mackerel, Pumpkin and fresh thyme for this tasty stew that’s gonna get you reminiscing about school day conker fights, bonfire nights and onset of the dreaded winter. It’s rich, warm and spicy and it just loves a bowl of brown rice in which to smother its juices all over. Mackerel is great for this dish, but substitute it for any variety of robust fish, like tuna or halibut

.  

Ingredients:

1/2 small pumpkin

1 400g tin peeled plum tomatoes

A bunch of spinach, roughly chopped

10 okra fingers

1/2 large onion

A 2 inch piece of ginger, finely chopped

2 large garlic cloves, minced

1 Mackerel fish scaled and gutted and cut into three pieces

1/2 Scotch bonnet pepper

3/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon paprika

3/4 teaspoon cumin

3/4 teaspoon salt

3 sprigs of thyme

3 tablespoons olive oil.

1) Begin by sweating the onions in the olive oil over a low heat in a large pot.

2) Chop the tops and ends off the okra fingers and cut in half and add to the pot along with the ginger, nutmeg, cumin, paprika and salt. Continue cooking over a low heat, stirring occasionally.

3) Add the peeled plum tomatoes, spinach, thyme, garlic and the scotch bonnet pepper, stir and resume cooking for five minutes

4) Add the pumpkin and the mackerel, cover the pot and cook for 25 minutes on a low heat.



Suya in Peckham

As you may be aware, Peckham, my glorious riot ravaged residence is home to what seems like the overspill of Lagos' monumental populace. Colourful, loud and multi lingual, it resembles the Nigerian capital more than the traditonal working class community it once was. One of my fav pastimes (other than eating) is to sample all the great ethnic eats in the area and for African food, particularly Nigerian, you're pretty much guaranteed for some tasty treats. So, after returning to Peckham on another gruesome bus ride, I find myself standing amidst the slightly less salubrious residents of Only fools and horses territory at midnight with a rumbling stomach. I wasn't in the mood for cooking - after all it's pretty late and I fancied something hot, spicy and meaty without playing midnight chef over the stove, and I knew just the place to satiate my craving- Obadele Suya. It's a grimey, no frills hole in wall with a sparse interior, but the menu reaches out to you in all it's descriptive prose, like a tantalising poem: Goat suya marinated in a spicy sauce with Jollof rice or fried plantain and fried fish, complete with pictures as well - I was sold at this point. Suya is basically grilled meat - usually beef, goat or chicken - coated in a spicy rub of ground peanuts and chilli. Half an hour later (we're dealing on APT here - African people's time)  I was tucking into a large parcel full of goat suya mixed with grilled tomatoes and onions. I left, full and content, armed with the personal promise to return!

New recipe: Kahcrow

A great bonding session came about with my Aunt Thelma while making the new recipe for HP. Let me explain further: I needed advice with creating a new dish for the blog and my sister, Katherine suggested I contact Aunt Thelma for help (which I did), as she was a renowned caterer in her younger years back in Ghana; so a couple of catch-up, I haven’t heard from you in ages, when are you getting married conversations and I’d made a date to visit my Auntie. She hasn’t changed: jolly, cheerfully loud and she remembers my voracious appetite, so had a steaming plate of rice n beans with meat stew waiting for me! And all within 10 minutes of rocking up at her house! Well, after I was satiated, we went about knocking up a great, traditional Ghanaian delicacy called ‘ Kahcrow’ (Kaaahcrow) which consists of mashed plantain, hot green Ghanaian chilli peppers, ginger and a spice called ‘Soh’ which has a smell akin to cloves, but looks like a mini piece of brown twig. Having never heard of ‘Soh, I was really excited and expectant as to how the dish would taste. Aunt Thelma made it all look so easy (as you can imagine, with all her years of experience), while engaging in conversation and talking on the phone all at the same time – Ghanaian woman take multi-tasking to a whole new level – and did I mention she has an ten ring stove? Industrial cooking appliances are the mark of a true Ghanaian caterer!

Making waves: Ghanaian food on the BBC.

So, there I was getting caught up in all the tawdry nonsense of super injunctions and dishonest football players, that I forget I was actually trawling the net for new evidence that Ghanaian food is 'out there'. It is so out there in fact, that I had somehow failed to notice the new addition of Ghanaian recipes on the BBC Food website!  (Don't ask me how, I'm acutally quite embarrassed) I even refreshed the page twice to make sure it was indeed a recipe for Jollof rice and fried plantain! Well, knock me over the head with a dusty yam and call me Comfort! I'm thoroughly impressed and slightly ambivalent in writing this post, lest you all desert me for the Beeb! But remember, you can't get more authentic than me - I know, I know, Jollof rice is Ghana's prized food, but I'm going to bring you the dishes that BBC readers would cry in horror over - like fried turkey gizzard and cow foot broth...maybe not, but you catch my culinary drift. So what do you all think, readers - does this news usher in the hope that Ghanaian food can break the stale obsession with Indian and Italian food? Hmm...

Bitterleaf and garden egg stew

Hmm…this recipe may not grab you at first or cause your saliva glands to work overtime; maybe it’s the bitterleaf which may bewilder some of those less familiar with this tropical spinach-like vegetable, or maybe it’s the garden eggs? What are those I hear you cry!? They are similar to an aubergine, off white in colour and an absolute essential in any Ghanaian pantry worth its weight in plantain. As winter draws its curtains for a 3 month hiatus, if we’re lucky (hey, May is the new August) my food thoughts turn to lighter ingredients, grilled meats and easy to rustle up dishes with lots of flavour, so what better way to mark this turn in the culinary calendar than to give you a final, heart warming recipe.

This dish goes well with plain white basmati rice, or, for the adventurous among you, chop up and boil a large, ripe plantain, along with half a chopped and peeled cassava. A side of hot sauce always goes down well.

Ingredients:

5 garden eggs

A small bunch of bitter leaves

The above can be obtained from any well sticked African market. If you don't have much luck, susbtitute the bitterleaf for spinach and the garden eggs for 1/2 an aubergine.

1/2 large onion, roughly chopped

1 400g tin chopped tomato

1 inch knob of ginger, finely chopped

2 - 3 large garlic cloves, finely chopped or minced.

1/2 scotch bonnet pepper (seeds removed)

A few springs of fresh thyme

1 level teaspoon all-purpose seasoning

300 ml chicken stock

250g large fresh prawns
300 ml coconut milk

2 tablespoon olive oil

Salt to taste (optional)

1) Wash the garden eggs/aubergine, chop into small pieces and place in a small pot of water and boil until tender. If using garden eggs they will become translucent, which is when you'll know they're cooked and you'll also need to peel the skin off them, but only when they're soft and cooked. Set aside.

2) Add the oil to a large pot with the chopped onions and garlic and fry until the onions soften slightly and then add the ginger, chopped scotch pepper and a touch more oil if needed and continue cooking.

3) Add the tinned tomatoes, thyme, seasoning and the garden eggs and continue cooking on a low heat

4) Tear the bitterleaf/spinach into the stew and gradually add the stock.

5) Lastly, add the prawns, cover the stew and cook for a further 10 -15 minutes.

Ghana needs a Nigerian idol

Now, I like to be inclusive with my reporting on all the funny stuff that makes the world go round; so what better way to bring a smile to ones face then to recommend you all somehow, someway, subscribe to Sky or any cheap broadband provider (heck, steal a dish if you have to - did I just say that?) to watch what is possibly the contender for the reality TV show of 2011( and it's only January) - yes, that's right, Nigerian idol is here! The search for Nigeria's musical persona is proving to be a hit not only with the Nigerian community in London, but for those looking for pure comedic value to Simon Cowell's relentless franchise, in a caption: compelling; was it fair for Rachel to go? Who will impress the judges this week? Where did the presenters get those American accents? All will be revealed...catch it on Sky 204. But I can't help wondering, will Ghana follow suit and what would it be like? Any ideas, guys?

Fun with Fufu

I want to introduce you to what is perhaps the one dish that strikes a vivid and often cold twinge of nostalgia in me: fufu. Commonly mispronounced, 'foofwee' as it is called, manifested itself in a kind of mini panic attack, when my Mum would announce this 'delicacy' at oft dinner times. I recall as a kid being served huge bowls of this peculiar white mass of tasteless rubber. I always resisted, I threw a tantrum, I even tried to hide the stuff in the baggy pouches of my five year old cheeks, but my Mum always found a way to get me to eat it; namely through bribery, with the alluring promise of a Toffee Crumble or a Fab (remember those?) They never materialised and you'd think I would have sussed out my Mum's cunning fufu ruse; but no, I ate the stuff with full, gullible gusto. I never quite understood why my Mother refused to eat it herself?

 Now, I can fully appreciate how tasty and versatile fufu is; it is the essential carbohydrate to accompany many a stew or soup from Groundnut to light soup or okra stew. Fufu is prepared from pounded cassava, plantain or yams in a giant pestle and mortar with two people, one to flip the mixture over and one to pound the dough as it thickens. It takes absolute concentration in addition to a complete trust in the person pounding the dough (the picture below sums up that point quite nicely!) What do you think? Is fufu capable of making it to household tables nationwide?

African cuisine: The last food taboo?

It's really the ultimate mystery for a foodie like me: why the lack of a mainstream African food scene? I sit and ponder this; I cry, I raise my hands heaven ward in search of a divine clue, I console myself with re-runs of Dorinder Hafner on dodgy VHS or I venture to Brixton market and loiter suspiciously around the mounds of dried salt fish and plantain; but still, it doesn't elicit any answers! I then decided enough was enough and a more pro-active approach was needed, so I went on line and posted on a well-known food website searching for peoples theories on the billion-cedi question. The responses hit me with the ferocity of a plane door opening at Kotoka airport (guys, you know what I mean, that heat is serious!), African food is considered inferior! Some of the responses to my enquiry went as follows: 'It's all bland pastes and tough meat' (Please sit down while I spoon feed you my Mum's homemade shito, and then tell me how bland you think 'African food' is!) 'I know nothing about it!' They keep it in the community' ' African food? You mean Moroccan ?...And other comments of an annoyingly similar ilk. My comeback to this? Nothing. Take note my trusted Hot Plantainers, for all will be revealed in due course...but in the meantime, get involved as I'm fond of saying; what are your opinions as to the reasons why Sub-saharan food isn't as popular as other cuisines?

Interesting Ghana facts part 2

Here's another bunch of interesting tid-bits about Ghana:

1) Lake Volta in the Volta region is one of the largest man-made lakes in the world. It occupies 3.6 per cent of Ghana's surface.
2) Surprisingly, English is the official language of Ghana.
3) Ghana is the third African country to reach the quarter final of the 2010 World Cup.
4) 24 million people occupy Ghana, with the Akan tribe being the largest.
5) The personal assistant of Kwame Nkrumah (Ghana's first president) was Erica Powell, an English girl from Brighton. Some believe their relationship wasn't always professional...

Pepper crust pork with yam balls

Lordy! What one has to do to find a nice bit of pork in this town! My mission to track down the elusive pork belly has taken with well out of my comfort zone and into unexplored territories (well, the supermarket as it goes!) I looked through Peckham, I traisped around Brixton, and I even considered buying my pork from the dodgy corner shop at the end of my road! But my senses got the better of me, and alas, I got the pork belly, with delicious layers of rind, fat and meat - perfect for the latest recipe; not bad for £4.00!
 This recipe hails from the Greater Accra region and is called Domedo (Doh-meh-doh), and it's a firm favourite amongst the Ga folk. The yam balls are so versatile and go with anything. Now, roll your sleeves up and get stuck in!

Ingredients

For the pork

A 400-500g slab of pork belly
1 tbsp of dried, red chili peppers
1 large garlic clove
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp sslt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tbsp Maggi sauce
A squeeze of lemon juice (optional)
1 pork stock cube

For the yams

A large yam (African yams are ideal, but settle for European if you can't find African ones)
A slice of wholemeal bread, blended into crumbs
1 egg yolk
1 tsp of mixed herbs
150 ml milk.
1/2 tsp salt
200ml olive oil

Start by washing the pork belly and placing on a small, foil covered tray. With a pestle and mortle, crush the red chili's into a rough paste and add the rest of the ingredients for the pork, minus the stock. Cover the entire surface of the top of the pork with the mixture, smoothing around the sides of the paste runs over. Place into a pre-heated oven on  a high heat for 1/2 hour, checking sporadically. After 1/2 hour, remove from oven and turn heat down. Prepare the stock by crumbling the stock cube into 150 ml of hot water and pour over the pork, then put back into the oven for a further 45 minutes; the top of the pork should be nice and crisp!
Peel and chop yam into small pieces and add to a large pan of boiling water, add salt and turn down a little and cook until very soft and then take off heat. Add the egg, herbs and milk and mash until smooth and creamy. Blend the bread and place in a bowl. Form the yams into smallish balls with your hands and roll in the bread crumbs, repeat until finished. Next, fire up a pan and heat oil until very hot. Drop yams into the pan and fry until crisp (this only takes around 1 minute of so and you should fry about 4 balls at a time) and place in a bowl. So, what do you think - delectable or delectable?