Kenkey: Ghana Delicious Recipe | How To Prepare

WHAT IS KENKEY?

Oh! Hey there! I hope you're all right! For today's entry, I'm going to highlight one of my favorite dishes: a very plain, fresh, and tasty Ghanaian dish called 'Kenkey' which is typically served with grilled or fried fish (or even with sardines), shrimp, and seasoned pepper sauce. Mmmmm!

Kenkey is a traditional Ghanaian dish made from fermented white maize and commonly eaten all across the country by the Ga people of southern Ghana.

The tribe of the Ga name the kenkey, come. The Fante tribe that lives in the middle of the nation is called Dokono. Kenkey is also followed by fried fish that are very common in all of West Africa, where fishing is commonly practiced and where fish are usually consumed fresh and fried or well dried or smoked for better preservation.

Before we get into the recipe, it is most obvious that there are various variants of Kenkey (the cooking methods vary by ethnic group), the most popular of which are Ga and Fante Kenkey. Kenkey is part of my book, Eteka: Rise of the Imamba. We're going to go into how to make Ga Kenkey for this post. Let's get to this:

The ingredients:

1. 3 cups of stone-ground white cornmeal (not de-germinated)
2. 1 tbsp starch of corn
3. 3 cups (105-115°F) of warm water
4. 1 teaspoon salt
5. dry corn husks

HOW TO PREPARE THE KENKEY?

It takes two days of fermentation to prepare kenkey, the preparation period in the kitchen is also important and therefore needs a little organization, so kenkey is always prepared with the family.

Preparation

• Place the cornmeal and the cornstarch in a dish.
• Add hot water and stir until a smooth batter/dough is formed.
• Cap the bowl loosely with a cloth or wax paper and set for 2 days in a warm out-of-the-way position.
• In your hands, knead the fermented dough until blended and slightly stiffened. Break the dough into two equal parts.
• Bring 2 cups of water to a boil. Cook one portion of the fermented dough in a big pot. Cook for about ten minutes, stirring constantly and continuously.
• Stir in the remaining dough, remove the pan from the heat and blend thoroughly.
• Divide the dough into 3 or 4 large pieces.
• Place it on the corn husks.
• Shape the balls of the dough.
• Wrap the corn husk around the top of the ball.
• Heat or pressure cooker as follows:

1. Steaming Service
2. In a steamer pot, pour hot water and put a rack on top of it.
3. Place the wrapped kenkey on the rack and bring the water to a boil over high heat.
4. Reduce to low heat and steam for about 90 minutes.
5. Pressure Cooking
6. Put the wrappers in the pressure cooker, pushed on a rack.
7. To meet the minimum safe level given by the manufacturer, add enough water to the pressure cooker.
8. Cook for 20 minutes with a 15-psi pressure cooker.
9. Release the pressure quickly, then open the pressure cooker so that the steam is released from your face.
10. Let the dumplings from Kenkey cool down for ten minutes.

Kenkey is usually eaten with shito (a tasty, spicy sauce native to Ghana), diced or ground red and/or green pepper, and fish. After the meal, add a chilled Guinness in to seal the bargain.