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Waakye And Stew

HI folks, this is the second time I made this dish. The first time it tasted ok but I did not have all of the ingredients that I needed. I have eaten this with shito the first time I had made this. This time I have made a stew to go along with it. When I seen the waakye sticks I right away pounced and snapped them up.

I have been looking for recipes on how to make the stew to go with this yummy dish from Ghana. I found waakye sticks finally at African stores here in Chicago. Recently here in USA in the states of Texas and Florida as well as the Caribbean and Puerto Rico has been ravaged by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma.

I pray that for those people have lost everything can rebuild and have some closer over the love ones that they have lost. Also my brave surviving friends who rode out those nasty storms or was evacuated can piece their lives back together again and Jose can keep its distance. Ameen.

With enough said we can get on with the recipe for making this dish.

Rice and beans part:

I added 1 cup of dried or frozen blackeye peas or cow peas that has been washed in to the pressure cooker, 1 bullion cube, 4 cups of water, 1 pinch of red chili powder, 3 dashes of maggi or knorr aroma and 1 pinch of baking soda.

I turned on the pressure cooker to high heat and waited for the safety button to pop up and cooked for 20 minutes.

The beans was nice and soft and now it is time to add 2 cups of rice in to a coldero and rinse the rice until the water becomes clear. Any type of rice can be used for this dish. Add the beans from the pressure cooker in to the pot and an additional 6 cups of water, 3 waakye leaves cut in half and distributed all over the beans and rice, 1 more pinch of baking soda.

Bring to boil on high heat and place aluminum foil under the lid and cook for 20 minutes on low. Stir occasionally and when the rice is soft and absorbed by the water turn off heat and let sit for 20 minutes.

Stew part:

Now for the stew there are proteins of choice here they are 1 kg or lb of chicken, lamb, goat, veal, beef, smoked turkey, tripe, turkey, oxtails, gizzards, liver, kidneys, fish or other seafood of choice such as shrimp, crab, clams oysters or mussels either fresh or frozen, 4 goat’s feet 1 cow’s, 6 lamb’s or goat’s tongues, 1 heart from either cow, goat or lamb, 1 can of either zabhiha halal corned or canned fish in either brine, oil or tomato sauce is great for stew too.

Wash and clean the protein of choice, scale and gut the fish if needed or ask your fish monger to do it. Take of the fatty part on the smooth part of the tripe and add 1 drop of dish detergent in a huge mixing bowl full of water and rinse after changing the water a few times. Snip with a pair of kitchen shears and put back in a large bowl full of water and add 1 oz of white vinegar for final cleaning and rinse a few more times.

The tougher meats like the tongue, tripe, gizzards, turkey, oxtails, beef, lamb, goat, veal, goat’s feet gets cooked in a pressure cooker with 4 cups of water added for 30 minutes then the pressure escapes, pressure cooker gets opened then if it is still a little tough then add 1 cup of water if needed and again for another 30 minutes and turn heat off. If using shrimp, devein and take the shell off of the shrimp and boil the crab if using. Shrimp gets fried in peanut oil until pink.

Kidneys and liver gets their membranes and cortexes removed. It is the white center of the kidney. The brown part is what you want to keep. Take a big bowl fill it with cold water and add 3 pinches of kosher salt and let soak at least a minimum of 10 minutes and drain and keep rinsing 6 times or more. Then add 1 oz of white vinegar to the large bowl with more water and make sure it is full. Add the liver and kidneys and keep rinsing until you do not see any more blood coming from them and that the water is clear.

This gets fried in a skillet in 1 oz of peanut oil. Cook until done and there is no more water coming out of them. The can of zabhiha halal corned beef and canned fish gets added in at the last minute after you put the stew on.

Q: What am I going to do with the brine or oil from the cans? Do I throw it away?

A: No you don’t because this would give the stew some flavor.

Q: what about the stock from the meat after it cooks in the pressure cooker.

A: This is what you do, is when you have stock from the meat you cook in a pressure cooker and have some stock as a result you add it to a coldero and bring it to a rapid boil to greatly reduce the stock. This you would need for the stew.

There is an alternative for cooking meat in the oven that you heat the oven for 400F or 200C. In a roasting pan you can add turkey tongue, fish, chicken, turkey, oxtails, goat, lamb, beef, veal, smoked turkey or rabbit. Spray with cooking spray or add 1 cup of water before you add your meat. This oven baked method may take longer then the pressure cooked method it is 20 minutes for fish and for other meats it is 30 minute intervals until done. With both pressure cook and oven methods if cooking tongue please remove the skin. Hearts gets cut open in half and all of the coagulated blood or blood clots in lay man’s terms are removed before you chop it up in to bits before you cook it. This can be either fried in peanut or palm oil.

Just be diligent and keep checking. The fresh or frozen fish can be pan fried too using peanut oil. Just make sure you thaw your meat or fish first in the fridge the night before cooking.

I wanted chicken so chicken was my protein of choice and I cooked it in my cast iron skillet in 1 cup of water unseasoned. The reason why I did this because I did not want to get the food too salty. It is important when you make African food is to precook your meat to save you some time. The rest is just as we say, “It’s just gravy” or “easy peasy lemon squeezy.”

Spice blend in mortar and pestle: I added 1 broken piece of star anise and 2 cloves which I ground and set aside. I added to a small bowl to set aside when I made the stew is 1 bay leaf and 1 pinch each of rosemary leaves and thyme.

For the stew part itself and the home stretch:

In my blender I added 1 habenero or scotch bonnet deseeded, 1 small piece of ginger washed peeled and chopped, 2 cloves of garlic, 1 onion or shallot, 1 tomato chopped, 1/4 cup of water for ease of blending.

Ok you can add either 1 oz cup of peanut oil or red palm oil, If you used oil to precook your meat you may not need much anymore. Please use discretion.

Add the blended tomato mixture in to the cast iron or caldero if using and stir until the raw smell goes away. Add the seasoning from the spice blend in to the pot along with the contents of the mortar and pestle, 1 bullion cube or 3 pinches of bullion powder or vegtea seasoning. Crumble the bullion cube and add it to the food if using bullion cube.

Stir then add 1 pinch each of crayfish, Curry Powder, red chili powder, 3 dashes of maggi or knorr aroma, stir again and add protein of choice, 1 tbs of tomato paste and 1 cup of water stir and cook until you get a thick stew.

Boil 2 chicken eggs or 6 quail eggs until they are hard boiled then crack to remove shell and add to stew at the end. Turn off heat. Enjoy with an icy non alcoholic brew, 1 sliced avocado and shito. As you see this gets eaten on top of the waakye itself and it is very much apart of this dish. Anyway when I had made this I ended up adding the palm oil, stew base, spices and everything else on top of the chicken.

It is because I did not want to dirty up a bowl and there was barely any stock coming from the chicken. This turned out lovely anyway. So as usual I am giving lots of options here. Even if I want to make banku then I can just eat the stew with this too if I do not want to make the rice and beans part.

Cheers!!!!

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