It has rained virtually non-stop for the past 3 days. Sometimes it's only a drizzle, but then thunderstorms with wind will pop up without warning. As a consequence, the roads are a mess and everyone stays home. We spent the weekend home in Teshie rather than travelling (which we are telling ourselves we will do next weekend no matter what the weather... there are simply some places we must visit). But as a happy consequence, because we weren't travelling and because the ill weather kept us indoors, I had a chance to cook on Saturday.
Sam and I decided we should cook a Ghanaian dish for dinner to be followed by an American dessert. The decision for the main dish was quite easy to make and we quickly settled on Jollof Rice, a traditional west African dish. Deciding on a dessert was much trickier given our limited access to ingredients (no leavening agents and no flour). After much discussion and website perusal, we decided we would try our hand at brownies made with a combination of recipes and substituting pancake mix for flour, though our particular mix lacked any leavening agents. James was kind and offered his assistance and expertise in making the Jollof Rice.
Our "Ghanaian Brownies" turned out to be quite a success, though unlike any brownie we have had before. We did encounter a few technical difficulties in the process of making the brownies, however, including discovering that James has never used his oven and doesn't know how it works. Sam and James had to drive to his brother's house took bake the brownies while I began on the Jollof Rice. In theory, this was a great plan. In practice... the oven heated unevenly and so it took twice as long to cook the brownies as it should have. On the way home, James, his brother John, and Sam were stopped by the police at a road block. The police here are quite corrupt (more on this later), and they were checking all cars with flashlights. As soon as they saw Obruni-Sam in the car, they stopped the car to search it and asked for a cash bribe (quite common here in Ghana). The police had to have been quite disappointed when they learned that all the money Sam had with her was tro-tro change -- less than 1 US dollar! Not all white people are rich...
While all of this drama was occurring, I was well into making the Jollof Rice and was waiting for James to give me the next instructions when the power went out. It's common here for the power to go out for periods of time, but I think I heard a transformer blow. Perhaps it was all of the rain. Fortunately, I had a flashlight to cook with and James, John and Sam were home shortly thereafter, and we all finished cooking together.
Given the chaos of our cooking experience, I am quite happy to report that Sam, James, and John did an excellent job on the brownies, and that the Jollof Rice turned out delicious! I've done my best to record the Jollof Rice recipe if any of you are interested in trying it out! I'll post the brownie recipe too if we re-visit and try and perfect it!
James Dzandza’s Jollof Rice
(Makes enough to serve five & takes about an hour to cook once prepped)
1 small onion, chopped
6 or more cloves garlic, chopped
6 small carrots, peeled and chopped
2 small bell peppers, chopped
Handful of green beans, chopped
6 green onions, chopped
3 small tins tomato paste (1 large in the US)
Spices: ½ tbs rosemary, ground hot pepper, dried shrimp powder (cube), 2 stock cubes)
Rice
Water
Hard boiled eggs cut into quarters
Directions:
1. In a large stew pot, saute onion and garlic in vegetable oil
2. When the onion is translucent, add in other vegetables and cook until tender
3. Add tomato paste, spices and enough water to mix everything together. Turn heat to low and cook 5-10 minutes while stirring frequently.
4. Add as much rice as equals the volume of stew. (ex: 3 cups of stew = 3 cups of rice). You can remove some stew if you’d prefer less rice, but remember that when serving Jollof as dinner, you can always use extra rice! Turn the heat to low and stir until rice is fully mixed with the stew. Cook for 10 minutes, scraping and stirring often.
5. Add water, stir and cover tightly. Cook for a few minutes before stirring. Repeat this process until the rice is fully cooked.
6. Serve the rice with the hard boiled eggs.
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