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Red Red

One time in Instagram Freedes who has the My Burnt Otange blog. She said to me that I love Naija food. I said yes I do. What about Ghana? I have done a lot of Nigerian, Ethiopian, a couple from Kenya and even South Africa. As for food from Ghana I will tell you this one is my favorite.

Also blackeyed peas are very versitle. They can be used to make moin moin, ekuru which is like moin moin but only with the stew on top, gbegiri, accara, waakye, ewa agoyin besides the red red. They are also used here in the USA in the southern states as part of their cuisine. I was telling my youngest girl about that it has African roots. Ghanaians calls accara koose. Whatever it is to me I think it is just plain delicious.

I looked up on my pins on how to make this dish and I am putting my spin on this, The only bean for this are blackeyed peas. I have done this all in one pot too so this is a one pot dish. It is 1 cup of blackeyed peas that I washed very well and set aside. You can use fresh ones if you like if you can find them which is rare. I usually use the dried ones which is just great. They even have some frozen in the frozen food section.

Soak 1 piece of smoked dried fish overnight to soften and remove the excess salt. Drain. rinse and tear in to tiny pieces. It should resemble tuna in a can. Set aside and add 3 tbs of red palm oil in the pressure cooker. This is the only African dish that I have made without breaking out my blender. It is totally unbelievable.

In mortar and pestle add 1 pinch of black peppercorns and grind in to a coarse powder. Chop 1 onion or shallot and cook until it is slightly brown, Add 1 bullion cube, 3 dashes of maggi or knorr aroma, 1 small piece of ginger minced fine, 3 cloves of garlic chopped, 1 pinch each of paprika, curry powder , red chili powder and the contents of the mortar and pestle. Stir then add 1 habenero or scotch bonnet desseded chopped. 1 tomato and let get a little mushy. Not too mushy this time because I left it a little chunky and it was already very red on completion before adding the tomato paste.

Wait and hold your horses. It means be patient in ‘American slang or as my late mom would tell me hold the phone. The British use the prase hang on which means wait. Add the dried fish, 1 pinch of crayfish powder, 3 smoked shrimps crumbled. 1 quart or 1 liter of water. Close the pressure cooker and let pressure build and safety button pops up then cook for 30 minutes then shut off the heat and let pressure escape.

When the pressure is gone check the blackeyed peas to see they are soft. Usually this is an easy bean to cook and it is not a hard bean at all like pidgeon peas fava beans and chickpeas which take 5 hours to cook in a normal method. Add 3 tbs of tomato paste to the beans and turn back on the heat and keep stirring until the tomato paste melts in to the beans.

After it is done you can enjoy it with fufu of choice, rice or even noodles, Please make sure it isn’t the real spicy one. The non spicy one is great for this. I even used the seasoning packet in the noodles when I cooked it. So no problem. It can even be enjoyed with fried plantain and a malt beverage. Optional is 4 green onions both the white and green parts as garnish.

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