Indo Ghanaian Cuisine

No, there is no such thing called Indo Ghanaian cuisine. But it is an opportunity which some of us have lost and some of the people who are currently living there can tap.

 

The story starts at about month of March in 2010 when it got confirmed that I shall be going to Ghana as a VSO volunteer. The first bit of information I started to search for was about food. Most of the reports about food in Ghana were written by western travellers and volunteers. The reports were pretty frustrating as to tell you how difficult it is to adjust with it and how the food is poor in nutrition. At the same time having academic background in Agriculture the second thing that I searched for was about crops cultivated in the Upper East Region of Ghana where I was to be based. Surprisingly the set of crops which they were growing was very similar to what we commonly cultivate in south central parts of India. There was no chance for somebody to not have nutritious food on plate as per my reading on the internet. It was pretty confusing.

 

Picture became gradually clear once I actually started living there. There was a cultural angle to the reports I had read. Being from western countries, the diets of these cribbing bloggers was based on what was commonly found in their countries. Wheat pasta, potatoes and cauliflowers were simply missing in the local Ghanaian food and those bloggers were not cooking for themselves and whining about the foods which they were used to eat back at home. I could see at the markets in Bolgatanga and even the little town of Bongo where I was based were full with locally grown ingredients. As I started to cook, I could find the parallels between Konkani and Maharashtrian regional food at our home in Mumbai and the African ingredients available in local markets. The life became very simple that point onwards, in fact exciting with exploration of new ingredients every day.

 

Some vegetables were outright same but with their different local varieties okru (Bhindi), bito (Marathi name Ambadi), wala (bottle gourd), pumpkin, pepe (fresh red chillies, the seeds of which I wish I could have smuggled while coming back home. This type has unique flavour and a fruity taste.) Then there were universal vegetables called tomatoes and onions. It was no brainer that they could be used as they were by putting them in our own Indian tadka.

 

There were some ingredients,  which we had not seen before but could draw the similarities and cook them in our own Indian style. Alefu is from a family of Amaranth and one can separate out the leaves and cook them in any of the Indian ways. Then there were some more leafy vegetables the names of which I don’t remember and had not seen them back in India but some boiling and stir frying sufficed for them. Exotic costly Potatoes got replaced by cheap and locally grown yams of 4 different types. Further explorations showed us that Bambara beans could replace Chhole (chickpeas) and wagashi, a local cottage cheese made from cow milk, could happily replace Indian Paneer.

 

All the current day talk of goodness of cold pressed oils was just not needed for local rural Ghanaians then. Cold pressed oils were the norm and they were available right in those local markets. I feel sorry that I did not use these. Unrefined cold pressed palm oil has a beautiful deep red colour and its use is very much similar to coconut oil. Another wonder in Africa is shea butter which is similar to the Kokum butter found in the Konkan region. Unfortunately both these ingredients are being exported at a very low price to other countries including India to manufacture the unhealthiest hydrogenated fats.

 

Coming to grains, there is one Naara which is the local type of Bajra or pearl millet. Unlike Indian Bajra, this is very soft . My friend Ketan Patel could make a delicious rotis using Naara flour. There is another millet called Kemolga or red coloured sorghum (Jowar in India). The grains of Kemolga are hard and the bhakri (millet roti) made out of it is also not so good in taste but once I made our own Marathi preparation called Thalipeeth and it came out so well that even local Ghanaians appreciated it a lot. I consider this as an achievement as the local people do not like to try other styles of food and for them, most of the time, anything different from their own fufu and TZ is a strict no. 

 

One fine day my stock of Indian spices like cumin, mustard and turmeric was over and its nearest shop was about 120 km away. My weekly exploratory visit to Bolgatanga market then had to open the door to some local alternative. They were not cultivated spices but herbs collected from the wild. I could not get names of these but the taste and the fragrance is still recorded there in my head.

 

I am a vegetarian due to my upbringing and did not eat much of meat before going to Ghana. I did not try to cook meat or fish and instead tried whatever that was available outside at various eateries and restaurants. I have to say compared to greasy meat gravies which majority of Indians like, I always preferred Ghanaian way of grilling, be it Tilapia fish or the roasted goat meat kebabs. But I want to tell those hardline Indian fans of butter chicken, there is always a great scope to make Lucknowi biryani with a guineafowl.

 

Okay, before I end this reminiscent chatter, one thing which can perfectly accompany Indian food and is common in both the northern Ghana (more) as well as central India ( very less) is Bissap, a sweet cool drink made from roselle calyces (petals covering fruit). That is the one only common factor between ever pounding Ghanaians and ever stir frying Indians. J

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This is also cross posted at http://ghanaxp.blogspot.com/2021/12/indo-ghanaian-cuisine.html