Cooking with Bernard: Part 2

"From my experience, cooking is just making your own thing." 

That's the advice of Bernard, the Future Leaders cook. It's volunteer Marie's last day today and she requested some cooking lessons with him so that she can prepare Ghanaian dishes for friends back home in Belgium. It's Bernard's birthday as well so we are cooking enough for some of his friends who are coming over.

Marie is learning how to make kelewele, jolof rice and egg stew, all Ghanian dishes that our volunteers love. You can make them too; they are all very simple to make and use ingredients you can easily find at home. 

We usually have jolof with chicken and coleslaw as an evening meal, egg stew alone as lunch and kelewele as a snack. Kelewele also goes well with red sauce (you can find the recipe for that here).

Jolof rice and egg stew sauce all start from the same beginnings . . .

Ingredients (for 6)
1 onion, chopped
2 huge serving spoons tomato paste
salt
rosemary
bay leaf
mixed herbs
vegetable or palm oil for frying

Fry onion in lots of oil
Add tomato paste and a little water and mix well
Continue to stir over a flame until the tomato paste starts to brown
Add a couple of pinches of salt, rosemary, lots of mixed herbs and a bay leaf

To make jolof rice:
Add enough water to the sauce to cook enough rice for 6 people
Cover and leave for the rice to cook

To make egg stew:
Add 6 beaten eggs to the sauce, mix well and leave for a couple of minutes to cook
Cook enough pasta for 6, then mix with the sauce



Kelewele (fried plantain chunks)

Ingredients (for 6)
6 ripe plantains
4 cloves garlic
2 onions
5 inches ginger root
salt
4 fresh chilli peppers with seeds
vegetable or palm oil for frying

How much ginger and chilli you use depends on how hot you like it - this is how Bernard makes it. It's the same with the salt, Bernard uses a pinch per person but you could use less, or add it at the end. You could also add dessicated coconut, cinnamon, lemon juice to the blended mix - whatever takes your fancy.

Cut plantain in half long-ways, and then in to small chunks
Blend the ginger, chilli, garlic and onion with a splash of water in to a smooth paste
Mix the plantain and the paste with salt and leave for 20 mins
Deep fry the plantain in oil, then drain and serve hot