Thick soups are the mainstay of Ghanaian cuisine and are usually eaten with potatoes or rice. Another staple meal is Fufu, which consists of cassava, yam, or plantain that has been cooked, pureed, and mashed into a ball. Fufu is a ubiquitous and much-loved staple throughout most of West Africa. It can be topped with a fiery sauce or served as the bland accompaniment to a main dish. Fufu is traditionally made with cassava, but it can be prepared with everything from rice or yams, to instant mashed potatoes.
On street stalls you can find plenty of foods to stave off your hunger pangs. A popular dessert is fried plantains seasoned with chilli pepper and ginger. This is usually washed down with a refreshing non-alcoholic drink made of corn called askenkee.
One of the more common foods served on ceremonial occasions in Ghana is oto. It is used as an initiation meal prior to the events of the day. Oto is always accompanied by hard-boiled eggs. For official ceremonial purposes, oto is prepared without onions or tomatoes.
Ghana's most famous 'food', of course, is cocoa. It is one
of the country's major exports and is used to make chocolate.
Ghana is famed for the high quality cocoa it produces; cocoa is the country’s second largest export. The cocoa beans are used to make chocolate, either in Ghana, or in other countries such as the UK. One of the UK’s leading chocolate manufacturers, Cadbury’s, uses over 50,000 tonnes of cocoa beans every year to make chocolate. .
In Africa, cocoa is grown almost entirely on small-holdings. To flourish, cocoa trees need to be shaded, especially in the early stages of growth. Young cocoa trees are grown from seeds planted in special nurseries before being transferred to the prepared growing areas.
When the trees are three to four years old, they start to bear fruit. These large pods are green when young, but change to a golden-yellow when ripe. Once picked, the pods are broken open and the beans, formed on a stem and covered in sweet, creamy oil, are scooped out. The seeds are left to ferment and then to dry in the sun. During this process, the original pale creamy colour turns dark brown. It is then ready to manufacture into cocoa butter or chocolate.
Nothing goes to waste from the cocoa plant. The cocoa husk is used for fertiliser, and also as the ingredient of a specialist soap. Cocoa shell is used for garden mulch to control weeds and repel slugs.
When Europeans first tried chocolatl, they found it loathsome and unpleasant. But the name and taste caught on. In the UK today, we spend £3 billion on chocolate every year.
The first known use of the cocoa bean to make a chocolate drink dates back to the Mayan empire which at that time, spread across southern Mexico and Guatemala. It was Christopher Columbus who first brought word of cocoa and chocolate to Europe in the late fifteenth century. However, it was not until Don Cortes brought the actual cocoa beans back to Spain in 1528 that their importance was fully appreciated. Cortes is said to have tasted his first drinking chocolate in a golden goblet in the palace of the Aztec Emperor, Montezuma. A Spanish version of chocolate with added cinnamon, nutmeg and sugar soon became the fashionable drink of the Spanish court. As cocoa beans were in short supply, the secret of chocolate was closely guarded for almost a century.
Now, however, chocolate manufacture is big business around the world. But many of the farmers who grow the cocoa beans receive only a tiny proportion of the profits from chocolate sales. The introduction in recent years of Fair Trade chocolate has helped to redress the balance.
Divine chocolate is one the latest products to be awarded the Fair Trade Mark and it uses cocoa beans from Ghana. Divine is the first Fair Trade-Marked chocolate bar to be launched directly into supermarkets and is now available in 150g bars from Tesco, Co-op, and Iceland stores.
Fair Trade supports poor people who face disadvantages but are working to overcome them through their own efforts. Fair Trade is about giving poor people power, by paying producers a fair price for their work and by strengthening their hand in trading relationships. Fair Trade means that many of the people who rely on selling crafts and textiles for a living; or who produce food items such as tea, coffee cocoa, or honey, now have the chance to work their way out of poverty.
Organisations such as Oxfam GB have been trading fairly for years. Consumers have come to trust these organisations because they were set up to alleviate poverty and give producers in developing countries a fair deal. In order to encourage mainstream traders to adopt Fair Trade principles, the
was established by an organisation called the Fairtrade Foundation. The Fair Trade Mark is an independent consumer guarantee that Third World producers get a better deal. Products carrying the Fair Trade Mark are widely available in supermarkets, wholefood shops, Oxfam shops and other quality outlets in the UK.
You will need:
Place the yams in cold, unsalted water. Boil the water with the yams, and cook for approximately 25 minutes, or until the yams are soft. Remove the yams, cool, and peel, then mash with the other ingredients. Place in a food processor to remove any lumps. DO NOT PUREE. Put the fufu mixture in a bowl and beat with a wooden spoon or wire whisk until completely smooth. The fufu should have a sticky, slightly resilient consistency. All that remains is to shape the fufu into balls and serve warm.
oto recipe (mashed yams with eggs)
You will need:
Boil yams or potatoes, then mash smoothly with a fork; or prepare the instant mashed potatoes using directions on package, but using water instead of milk. Prepare gravy in a saucepan by frying onions and seasoning in palm oil. Add tomatoes if desired. Remove from heat. Mash the yolks from two of the hard-boiled eggs, and stir into gravy. Stir gravy into mashed yams and mix well until the colour is even. Empty the oto into a bowl and decorate with remaining whole eggs.
Photos for Oxfam GB by Penny Tweedie
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