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.

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African Plantain Recipes - Flavour Chef

African Plantain Recipes

Roasted ripe plantains have a nice crispy, caramelized texture, and a relentless sweet taste. It is a ubiquitous Caribbean cuisine that is served with almost every meal and enjoyed in other parts of the world. This is a quick and easy dish that is sure to bring Caribbean flavor to your home.

This plant is a member of the banana family. Unlike bananas, plantains are carbohydrates and should be cooked before eating. Like planting, its carbs are converted into natural sugars, resulting in a sweet taste. Quick frying of a fully ripe plantain in oil carries all the sugar to the caramelized surface. It makes a delicious chip that is simultaneously crisp and sweet. After the first taste, you will know why it's more preferable to eat fried plantain.

The key to successful roasting plantains is picking ripe fruits and using the right frying pan, oil, and heat. The skin of the ripe plantain should be almost black or in some cases pale yellow with black patches. In addition to being sweet, ripe fruit skins are easy to blend and ripen at any time.

What do you eat with fried plantains?

Serve the fried ripe plants as a side dish or breakfast. They are excellent with island favorites like red beans and rice and Jamaican jerk chicken and can be added to soups or dishes. In the South American country of Guyana, they are traditionally served a national dish called cook-up rice (meat cooked with rice, beans, and coconut milk).

Is it good to fry ripe plantain?

It is somewhat crisp on the outside and smoothes on the inside. So delicious that you can eat it raw or as a side dish with rice and beans.

Do you fry green or yellow plantains?

Fried green plantains are called "tostones". Yellow plants still need cooking, but they are sweet (as opposed to green plantains). These work great for frying and steaming.

African Plantain Recipe/Ingredients

This healthy and delicious African plantain recipe requires only 3 simple ingredients:
Ripe plants
Olive oil
Salt

How ripe should plantains be for frying?

Plantains go through different stages before it is completely ripe. When your plantain turns green>bright yellow>dark yellow with black spots, you should know it is ripe enough 
Once the spots start to appear and the skin turns black, the carbs turn into sugar, so the plant is now sweet and perfectly suited for baking.

How to prepare perfect African Plantain Recipe

• First, carefully peel the skin off. Then slice them into 1/4 to 1/3 inch strips.
• Next, coat the strips with olive oil and sprinkle with salt.
• Fry over low heat for 2-3 minutes. Baking at high heat might cause everything to burn around the edges before absorbing the oil.
• Turn it over to fry the other side.
• Now we have our perfectly roasted plantain

Now we have our perfectly roasted plantains. The sweetness of the ripe plants makes it a perfectly salty-sweet snack.
We like to heat ripe plantain, but they taste amazing even at room temperature, so don’t be afraid to make them ahead of time.

They are best stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week. You can easily fry it by baking for with 425-degree oven until the plantain becomes crispy.

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