Trip #6 - Ghana

I'm sorry I haven't posted in so long! I've been pouting over my lost pictures, and putting up a stink about posting things I did without the pictures to back them up.

I decided today I needed to end the nonsense and get it over with. So, with no further ado, I present to you our very late Africa date blog post!

Activity:

I scoured the internet searching for traditional Ghanaian games. Of the few I found, most weren't suited for just two people, so I was pretty excited when I emerged from the google underbelly with 2 ideas.

#1 Mancala - I ADORE this game. For some reason, it was included in my sixth grade curriculum for a few months, so I already knew what it was. I found one on Amazon for a pretty good price and we played game after game after game. The hubster is really into it. We even played it every day on his lunch break for the next two weeks. Safe to say it was a hit.

#2 Ampe - This game requires ZERO DOLLARS, so it's already a winner in my book. I found it here. It's an active game that is somehow a mix of the Hokey Pokey with Tag and Down By The Banks. It's not complicated at all, but the instructions were a little confusing, so it took us a minute to figure it out.

Not that we're competitive or anything, but I'm pretty sure I won unequivocally at Mancala. And I also got my ego handed to me at Ampe. So we came out even. But really I'm the winner.


Dinner:

My grandiose plans for dinner were cut short when I realized it's impossible to buy Fufu Flour, Cassavas, White Yams, or Plantains in this town. So I had to put off Ghana night for a couple of weeks until I could arrange a way to get those things here. The Fufu flour you can buy online from Amazon (that website has almost everything I could ever need. It's a lifesaver for small-town living!) and my wonderful Aunt brought plantains with her on her way through town to see family.

Appetizer: Kelewele

Taken from: http://africanfoodie.wordpress.com/tag/how-to-make-kelewele/

Kelewele is essentially fried spiced plantains. It actually turned out better than I thought it would! I found the recipe here. Our kelewele looked almost exactly the same as the picture, and the recipe at that link is almost identical, so either place will get you there.

What You Need
4-6 Plantains
1/2 tsp Cayenne Pepper
1/2 tsp Peeled, grated, fresh ginger root
1 tsp Salt
2 Tbs Water
Palm or Vegetable Oil (for frying

What You Do
Cut up the plantains into bite-sized chunks. Combine the water and spices in a bowl, then put the plantain chunks in the bowl and make sure they are coated evenly with the spice mixture. Then heat the oil to 350 degrees, making sure it is just deep enough that your plantain chunks will be able to float. Fry a few at a time (make sure they don't touch), turning once, until they are golden brown. Put the finished kelewele in a warmed oven to keep them warm until the whole batch is fried.

According to what I read online, this is a very common dish in Ghana. It is made by street vendors all over the place, and often made daily at home. I don't have any hard facts to back that up, though, so take it for what it's worth.

We liked it, but I wished it had been a little spicier to balance out the sweetness of the plantains. If we made it again (we probably won't because you can't buy plantains here), I'd want to increase the amount of cayenne pepper.

Main Course: Peanut Soup with Fufu

Fufu is a dumpling-like dish that is often served with soup. I was pretty dead set on making the fufu from scratch, but both cassavas and white yams are apparently non-existent this time of year. So I caved and bought fufu flour. You just mix it with water, and boom. Instant fufu. Simple as that.

I found a recipe for peanut soup that sounded pretty good. Let's be honest here. I saw that one of the ingredients was peanut butter and I was sold. To see the original recipe, click here. It made 10 servings, but there are only two of us, so I cut the recipe in half. (Can you say, leftovers? mmmmm)

What You Need
2 Tbs Olive Oil
2 Medium Onions, chopped
2 Large Red Bell Peppers, chopped
4 Cloves of Garlic, minced
1 (28oz) can Crushed Tomatoes, with liquid
8 cups Vegetable Broth or Stock
1/4 tsp Pepper
1/4 tsp Chili Powder
2/3 cup Extra Crunch Peanut Butter
1/2 C Uncooked Brown Rice

What You Do
Heat the oil in a stock pot, and cook the onions and peppers until lightly browned and tender. Add in the garlic when the onions and peppers are almost done. Then add the tomatoes, vegetable stock, pepper, and chili powder. Reduce heat to low and simmer uncovered for 30 minutes.

Stir in the rice, cover, and simmer for an additional 15 minutes, or until rice is tender. Stir in peanut butter until well blended, then serve.


The fufu can be served two ways. You form into a ball then either serve on a extra plate next to the soup, or put it in the middle of the bowl and pour the soup right over the top. Fufu is eaten by hand, by taking a small piece and dipping it in the soup. I also read in several sources that you're supposed to swallow it whole, and that it's incorrect to chew fufu. We tried the no-chew method, but it was too weird.

A lot of Peanut Soup recipes also called for meat of some kind (usually chicken or pork) and/or butternut squash. After asking the Hubster's opinion on the meal, he said that it would be better with some meat in it, so that pretty much put that topic to rest before I even had a chance to bring it up. I really liked this soup, and the leftovers were great! Beware though, fufu isn't good the second time around. If we make it again, we'll definitely add some meat to it.


GOOD NEWS - I found one picture that wasn't lost (instagrammed it). Of course it's a novelty shot of the ginger root on my beat-up cutting board. BUT AT LEAST IT'S MINE!

Dessert: Pineapple Milkshakes

I know this isn't really a Ghanaian dessert, but most of the desserts and/or drinks I looked up were alcoholic. Pineapple is prolific there, so I figured this would be close.

I almost wish we hadn't done this, though, because now I crave it all the time! We had pineapple milkshakes 3 times over a week and a half. The Hubster's a good sport. haha


Movie:

I gave the Hubster a list to choose from this time, mostly to see if we could mix it up from the 007 thing we've had going on.

DON'T GET ME WRONG. I'm a James Bond fan. But I just wasn't feeling it at the time, so I gave him some alternatives. There weren't any movies about Ghana or based in Ghana that I could find, so I basically did a search on Netflix for "Africa" and wrote down anything it found. Here's what I got:

The African Queen
Zulu
Faith Like Potatoes
Sarafina!
White Wedding
Hotel Rwanda
The First Grader
Cry, The Beloved Country
Madagascar (we own this one)

The Hubster chose Zulu, which surprised me at first. But then I remembered that underneath all of the action movie nerdiness he does actually really like historical accounts.

For those of you that don't know, Zulu based on a true story. It tells the story of Rorke's Drift, where a grossly outnumbered British troop did battle with the Zulu Nation. If you're curious about more of the back-story, you can read it here.

 Plus, it has a young Michael Cane in it.

History lesson aside, our Ghana date was definitely a success! There is a very small chance I'll be able to recover my pictures, so if I ever do I'll add them here and take off the google images.


Want to know what these "Trip" dates are all about? Check it out here.

Where are we going next? ---->CHINA!