Shrimps!!!!!

Haha! I don't know exactly what to call this except what it is....some SHRIMPS!!! LOL I am such a shrimp lover it's insane, I was craving shrimps but didn't want curry shrimp or fried shrimp so I just went into my fridge got some bell peppers, onions and then here we are! Some yummy shrimps!! :-D

Ingredients:

• 1 lb of shrimp (peeled,deveined) 
• 1 red bell pepper
• 1 yellow bell pepper
• 1 green pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon seasoning salt (I used Lawry's as always)
• 1/3 teaspoon of oil(olive oil or canola oil)

PS: You can make this as spicy as you want by increasing the amount of spices you use, its all up to you. If you also want it saucy just add 1 or 1/2 cup of water mix it with 1 or 1/2 teaspoon of cornstarch or flour and pour it on your shrimps and let it simmer till it gets the "thickness". The one I made didn't have any sauce because that's how I preferred it. 

Method:

1. Wash shrimps and season with all your spices, set aside
2. Chop and wash your vegetables (Don't cut them too small)
3. In a sauce pan, add the oil, pour in your vegetables, stir for about 5 minutes 
4. Add in your seasoned shrimps, stir for another 5 minutes, Let it simmer for 15minutes
5. Serve with jollof, fried rice, white rice and rice and peas

Vegetables

Almost ready

Pound Cake (Ghana style)

I've always been the cooking type wasnt really into baking but I was bored on one Sunday & decided why not give that a try. So instead of buying the box mix to make it easier for me. I decided to ask my mom how she did her cakes back when we were in Ghana & I was surprised to see how simple it was

Ingredients:

• 2 cups butter (4 sticks,16oz)
• 1 cup sugar
• 6 eggs
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 teaspoons baking powder

Ps: As a preservative, so that the cake won't go bad(because of all the eggs you have in there), add 1/4 cup of brandy(any of your choice)to the cake.

Method:

1. Grease a cake pan of your choice
2. Preheat oven at 350 degrees F(177 degrees C)
3. Mix your dry ingredients, flour,baking powder and nutmeg.
4. Then in a separate bowl,cream your sugar and butter till is completely mixed, beat in eggs one at a time still stirring.
5. Add in your vanilla extract, then mix in your dry ingredients slowly, making sure that everything is fully mixed.
6. Pour into greased pan and bake for about an hour or when you stick a toothpick in and it comes out clean. (When you put the cake in the oven don't open it to check on it, let the cake rise well before you do so otherwise it would fall in and you would have a flat cake.....hopefully this makes sense...Lol)

Ps: If you are trying to have yours with the coloring that I have in some of the pictures below. Just take about 4 tablespoons from the batter, add the food color of choice(about 1/3 teaspoon....not too much color) then mix it well,then pour it in your greased pan with the rest of the batter. For the chocolate mix I used 1 tablespoon of cocoa powder in a small mixture of the batter. 

The process of making the pound cake. (I don't have a cake mixer yet so it was all by hand...lol)

Finally got a cake mixer (as a graduation gift...yay) so everything was a bit easier

I used green,purple and pink food coloring for this trial cake. Loved how it came out

Wanted a vanilla and strawberry flavor so I used this with a little bit of batter from the original

Something blue lol

How it looked like lol (Something blue)

Something blue is ready lol

The end result. (Sorry I don't have a before picture for the chocolate one, but I will update as time goes on)

For some interesting reason the cake looks like red,yellow and green after it was done haha. (But I had some left over batter so I made cupcakes with them)

With a little of chocolate in the middle

Plain old pound cake with a dash of vanilla & strawberry flavors

Baking for christmas 

Very colorful lol

Ghana colors, representing my motherland!!! 

Soft and yummy 

With a little chocolate hidden inside

Bofrot/Boflot/Bofloat = Ball Float

Oh man one of my favorite snacks,well according to one of the friends of Theedee's cuisine page on fb(Maha-Marissa) these are called ball float (like balls floating in oil) but somehow Ghanaians we ended up with bofrot or bofloat (Gotta love Ghanaians lol). I had a craving for these just like they sell on the streets in Accra but I couldn't find none in New York so what does a foodie like me do I go on a search for the recipe. And waa-la I found it from my Auntie Mary of course lol.They taste close to exactly what I was craving for.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of flour 
• 2 teaspoons of yeast
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/3 cup of sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg
• 1/3 cup  of lukewarm water
• 2 tablespoons of milk
• Oil for frying

Method:

1. Stir yeast in 1/4 cup of warm water. Stir in 1 teaspoon of sugar and set aside for 10mins. If the mixture doubles in volume the yeast is active
2. Mix your flour,butter,sugar,nutmeg and stir in the yeast. Slowly add in your milk and water. 
3. Sprinkle some flour on a clean surface and knead your mixture till its very smooth and doesn't stick to the surface (this is the longest process for this whole recipe,usually takes about 10-15mins because you want the dough to be very smooth). 
4. Cut pieces of the dough and mold it into small balls, place on a baking sheet(sprinkle some flour on the sheet)
5. Cover with napkin or towel and allow the dough to rise(usually takes 30mins to an hour to rise, it also depends on how warm the kitchen is, the heat enables it to rise faster)
6. Fry until golden brown. (When the oil is extremely hot it doesn't take a long time for it to brown so keep stirring and keep paying attention to it)

Dissolving yeast

Milk and water mixture

Flour-ed baking sheet to place the ball float

Step by step after kneading

A perfectly risen bofrot. I was so happy when I saw this. Haha. 

Another perfectly risen ball float lol

Step by step frying stages, as you can see the ball floats were browning very quickly but don't take them out just yet because you want the insides to be well done. 

In the process

Ball floating in oil I loved how this turned out :-D 

Hot and tasty! Haha. :-)

This is how the inside of the ball float should look. If the dough is still stretchy that means its not ready

Too good. Ps: someone placed an order for this lol,...wasn't for the house

Peanut/Groundnut soup (Nkante nkwan)

 This is the soup that MOST people eat with their rice balls (omutuo), but it also goes well with fufu,rice and yam.....I love it with anything basically because it is yummy!! lol

Video -Groundnut soup

Ingredients:

• 1 12oz bottle of peanut butter 
• 1 lb of goat meat or chicken or fish (your preference)
• 2 onions
• 3 tomatoes
• 1 scotch bonnet pepper (depending on how hot you want it)
• 1 tablespoon of ginger
• 1 can small tomato paste
• Spices (lawry's seasoning salt, adobo,ground black pepper)

Method:

1. Wash your choice meat very well, removing every fat from it. Season with seasoning salt, powdered ginger and black pepper. Let it steam for about 20minutes
2. In a different sauce pan mix water and peanut butter till a smooth paste, chop onions, pepper (scotch bonnet) and a tablespoon of tomato paste. Put the peanut mix on a medium high,stir occasionally until it thickens. There will be some oil on the surface of it
3. Blend your onions, tomatoes, ginger and pepper. After pour it on the meat, then add the cooked peanut paste and the rest of the tomato paste. Add enough water till it's watery (You are making soup so it shouldn't be too thick)
4. Add the spices (season to your taste)
5. Allow it to simmer for 30- 40minutes

Ps: If you prefer fish instead of meat you can buy any fish you want (ideally tilapia), wash it,season with your choice of spices and bake it till its really dry and put it in the soup. :)

Before "frying" the peanut butter, has the onions,1 teaspoon tomato paste and scotch bonnet pepper

After steaming for a while, you see how its thickening up,this shows  that the peanut mix is ready for the soup

Goat meat ready to be steamed for the soup. Seasoned with chopped onions,black pepper,lawry's seasoning salt and ginger powder 

Goat meat after steaming

For those who prefer fish instead of meat or chicken. This is tilapia that I baked in the oven till it was very dry. And the others are dried fish directly from the market in Ghana. 

Soup with goat meat

This was with chicken and of course some rice balls (omutuo)

Scones (rock/rough buns)

I must confess I didn't know the real name for these until I started learning how to cook. I always called them rock/rough buns like they did in Ghana. LOL. Very simple but yet yummy scones. Can be great for tea for breakfast or just a snack.

Ingredients:

• 3 cups of flour
• 5 teaspoons of baking powder
• 1 egg (beaten)
• 1 cup of milk 
• 3/4 cup of butter (1 stick and a half)
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup of dried fruits like raisins could be added if you want it different from the plain old scones

Method:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F(175 degrees C)
2. Grease your muffin pan or baking sheet
3. Combine flour,butter,nutmeg,salt and baking powder. Mix it well it you have a bread crumb like texture, then add your sugar
4. In a separate bowl mix your milk and egg, and slowly stir it in the flour mix until its moistened. 



Bread crumb like texture



After adding the liquid ingredients, ready for the oven

5. Put a tablespoon or 1/4 cup full in the muffin pans OR turn out dough on to a very light flour surface, knead very briefly. Roll out the dough into 1/2 inch thick round and cut into 8 piece, place each piece on the baking sheet and bake for about 15-20 minutes

Before coating with milk

In the oven almost ready

I just made medium sized balls and baked it in a greased pan

These are not so rough buns but close lol

Kontomire stew (Spinach)

Kontomire(Spinach) stew is one of the healthiest stew depending on how much oil you use (LOL). Very tasty. Goes well with boiled plantain (green or yellow), boiled yam and white rice.

Ingredients:

• 2 16oz Spinach ( frozen,chopped or fresh spinach) 
• 4 tomatoes
• 2 and half onions
• 1 scotch bonnet pepper (jamaican hot pepper: you can use more depending on how hot you want it)
• 1/2 teaspoon of ginger
• Koobi (salted fish: this is optional you don't have to use it, but I use it because it tends to give the stew a different flavor)
• 1 can of mackerel
• 1/4 cup of vegetable or palm oil
• Spices: Maggi, adobo, seasoning salt, black pepper (any spices you want)

Method: 

1. Blend the 2 onions, tomatoes, pepper and ginger
2. In a sauce pan fry your koobi (salted fish) first, then add your sliced onions. Stir for a while, let it simmer for 2 mins
3. Add your blended ingredients and spices , and let the stew cook for about 5-10minutes
4. Add your spinach now, stir and let it simmer for about 5mins then add your mackerel and spices

PS: You can add goat meat, fish in addition to the mackerel. Any choice of meat you want can go with this stew. 

They are usually bigger than this 

I used eggs to this because I didn't have any agushi at home. 

Served with boiled yams and egg(requested) clearly there was too much palm oil(oops) 

With boiled yellow plantain

Jerk chicken

Summer is almost here(Woohoo) this chicken would be great for a nice barbecue outside. I can't wait to start grilling out again(LOL). This is a spicy but yet delicious chicken. The first time I ate this my lips were crying for mercy lol. But I still loved it!

Ingredients:

• 3 lbs of chicken
• 6 scotch bonnet(hot Jamaican pepper, jalapeño can be used as substitute)
• 6 cloves of garlic
• 3 onions
• 2 tablespoons thyme
• 2 tablespoons ground all spice
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons salt
• 2 tablespoons black pepper
• 2 teaspoon ginger
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon(optional)
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg(optional)
• 1 cup orange juice
• 1 cup white vinegar
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1 lime (juiced)

Method:

1. Wash chicken and chop in about 4 or 5 pieces and rub the lime all over it
2. Blend all ingredients with the exception of the chicken
3. Rub all ingredients on chicken & allow it to marinate overnight
4. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (204 degrees C)
5. Take some marinade out(this will be used for the coating of chicken as it's baking/grilling)
6. Bake  for an hour with constant turning & coating with your left over marinade until there is no more left over marinade
7. Serve with any dish of your choice. Goes with just about anything

Preparing the jerk chicken. It isn't so pretty but tastes so good lol

Half of the batch that was made