They say plagiarism is a form of flattery. 

It is also a blatant form of theft.

The photo at the top right is from a scanning of page 7 of the illustrations in our The Ghana Cookbook. With co-author Barbara Baëta, the book came out at the end of 2015 and has since gone through several printings. 

Recently,  I was appalled to see on Amazon.com several books all purporting to be "new"  or "essential" or "ultimate" "Ghana Cookbooks" by unknown-to-me authors.
I am generally thrilled when new West African books appear  on the scene, usually by respected African culinary experts like Pierre Thiam or Zoe Adjonyoh.  

However, it irritates me when folks with no credentials (or  else, bots?) crank out dozens of copycat books on popular topics.  It took me decades of learning to gain my knowledge.

I first noticed Amazon.com listing several dubious books claiming to have expertise on Ghana's cooking--all seem to be by individuals who crank out dozens of books on a variety of unrelated subjects.  I noticed the first one because it blatantly appropriated one of my personally taken photos from The Ghana Cookbook. "Wilfred Dawson" also plagiarized freely from my work. 

I sure don't feel flattered.

Where to buy The Ghana Cookbook in Accra?

Happy 2016! Several folks have asked where they can buy the book in Ghana. It is now available in Accra at  Wild Gecko, and also at  Vidya Bookstore in Osu. If you would like information about attending the upcoming book launch with Barbara Baëta and Fran Osseo-Asare in late January, please contact [email protected] for more information.

We were pleased that Gourmand International announced in December that The Ghana Cookbook was the Gourmand World Cookbook award winner for Ghana, and is now entered in the Gourmand Best in the World competition for "Best African cuisine published outside of Africa," with winners to be announced in February. 

This is the year of The Ghana Cookbook! It has also already gone into its second printing. Try something new this year, or learn how to make a  favorite Ghanaian dish. There are over 140 to choose from.

An especially hearty "yɛdase" (we thank you) to all of you for your support, such as Poem van Landewijk and Elizabeth Dubes Vardon at Wild Gecko Handicrafts, pictured above, on the left and right, respectively.

Working on the book: "little by little, the chicken drinks water"

Hello, friends. Yes, it has been almost 3 months since a posting here. Let me assure you that I am alive and well. The final draft of our book  (tentatively titled "The Good Soup Comes From the Good Earth: Regional Cooking of Ghana") is due at the publishers at the end of the summer, along with photos. That is a full-time project (note  the 6 binders and file box!), taking every spare moment. As soon as the manuscript is on its way to Hippocrene Press, I will be back at the blog with renewed energy.

Though I am writing alone, many of you have offered assistance with testing the recipes--please know how much that is appreciated, and how helpful the feedback has been. Student interns from Penn State and elsewhere are helping manage that whole process to leave me free to work. To see photos as they are taken by some of the testers, see http://www.pinterest.com/afculnet/recipe-testing-for-ghana-regional-cookbook/

Once again, thank you, thank you, thank you. It is sometimes a lonely road, and it is tremendously encouraging to have a community of supporters out there cheering me on.--Fran Osseo-Asare

Tiger Nuts: Another African food discovered by US health food enthusiasts

Tiger nuts (aka "chufa," or technically, Cyperus Esculentas), are included in the 1996 initial book in the Lost Crops of Africa series (Grains, Vol. 1), published by the National Academy Press.

In Ghana people delight in eating tiger nuts raw as a snack food, kind of like peanuts (though one spits out the fibrous coating after  chewing them to extract all the sweet milky juice.) 

Back in 2009 I posted a recipe for "atadwe milkye" or tigernut pudding. At that time I had to import the tigernuts from Spain, and they required a long soaking before grinding them to make the pudding.

While preparing to have some recipe testers try their hands at making this wonderful gluten-free pudding, I began searching for a source closer to home. 

Lo and behold: the health foods community has discovered tiger nuts! Two British-born men, Jack Sims and Jim McNulty, teamed up in 2013 to begin making this product available to the U.S. market via Tigernuts USA. They are also taking things one step further by providing the option of purchasing them with some of the outer husk removed (the part that we strained out repeatedly through silk cloth in Ghana after grinding the rice and tigernuts together). And soon, they are going to have tigernut flour available! There are all sorts of possibilities for simplifying the process of making the pudding.

My first order just arrived and I'll begin trying their nuts out soon.










Also, I want to thank all the folks who have volunteered to help out with the recipe testing. We can always use more! Just fill in the form and forward it to me. Also, the first couple of volunteers have emailed the results of their efforts and you can see their photos at the pinterest site. It is very encouraging and helpful to hear from all of you, and will definitely improve the final book.

Ghana regional cookbook update 2

Hello, faithful followers:

It's been 3 months since I've posted here. The time was to be spent working hard on the Ghanaian regional cookbook. It worked well--for a week or
two. . .

Then the "tyranny of the urgent" took over. I won't bore you with the details, but have decided to start posting again, and continue working on the cookbook at the same time. You all keep me motivated. The picture on the right shows my original thoughts on a cover, but as the book evolves, so has the title. Today I'm thinking of using another Ghanaian proverb ("The good soup comes from the good earth"). As you may recall, my first African cookbook (Pelican, 1993) was called A Good Soup Attracts Chairs.

The book's format is pretty well designed now. Feel free to look over the summarized table of contents below and let me know if you see something I've left out that ought to be there, or any errors. And if any of you are a potential publisher, or know of any, pass that information along.

Table of Contents (drafted)

Preface          Something for Everyone (drafted)

Introduction:  From Brisbane to Accra--Fran's story (drafted)

                       From Ghana with Love--Barbara's story(drafted)

Part I: The West African Kitchen

                       1. Background, languages, map  (drafted)

                       2. Ingredients (partially drafted)

                          Herbs, spices, seeds and oils

                          Staple foods: roots, grains, plantains and legumes

                          Meat, poultry, fish, shellfish and snails

                          Vegetables and fruits

                      3. Equipment (traditional and modern)

Part II: Essential flavors and techniques: the building blocks (partially drafted)

                      Flavor principles: texture, tastes

                      Seasoning techniques

                      Basic gravy for stews

                      Doughs (corn, cassava, fermenting)

                      Coatings: batter for squid, octopus, yam, groundnuts

                      Basic stocks

                      Removing skins from black-eyed peas

                      Opening coconuts, coconut milk and water

                      Toasting and grinding corn flour

                      Tankora powder/rub (yaagi, chichinga powder)

                      Drying (fruits, vegetables, fish and seafood)

                      Cooking and food processing techniques

                      Garnishing

                      Substitutions

Part III: Recipes (w/information on regional variations, specialties)

                     A. Snacks, street foods, and appetizers: includes green plantain chips or strips; cocoyam chips [mankani); fresh corn and coconut; sugar cane; cheese straws; octopus/squid appetizer;meat/fish pies/turnovers, kelewele [seasoned ripe plantains cubes], tubaani [steamed bean balls]; grilled prawns; chichinga [kebabs with a rub called yaagi]; tatale [ripe plantain pancakes]; akla [deep-fried bean balls, aka akara, kose, acara]; kaklo [plantain balls w/corn dough, 2 versions]; fish balls; coated groundnuts; "Kofi brokeman"[roasted ripe plantain];  roasted peanuts; boiled peantus; savory pastry chips; Ghana-style doughnuts [togbei, bofrot]; kuli-kuli [peanut snack]; yam balls [yele kakro]

                  B. Soups

                      1. Light soups (nkrankra [from meat, fish,vegetables, or all]: with lamb, eggplant, mushrooms and zucchini; fisherman's soup; pepper soup; Fante-Fante; dried vegetable soup; kontomire (greens) soup; egusi (melon seeds) soup; okro soups Ewe style (fetri detsi and fetri ma)

                     2. Groundnut (peanut), palmnut and sesame soups: chicken groundnut soup; vegetarian groundnut soup; groundnut soup with turkey and okra; groundnut-palmnut soup; classic palmnut soup; palmnut and bean soup; benne (sesame) soup with Guinea fowl or game hens)

                 C. Stews: browned flour and meat stew; groundnut (peanut) stew with chicken and condiments; groundnut stew with meat; sardine stew; corned beef stew; simple bean stew; crock pot bean stew with smoked fish (aka, ase abom or frow, asedua yoo flo, bobo, eduwa forowe, in various languages in Ghana); palaver sauce, garden egg (eggplant) stew with beef, crab and fish; detsi fifi (an Ewe dish between a light soup and gravy); ayikple (coconut and bean stew); okra/eggplant/fish stew; aprapransa or akplijii (seafood and toasted corn stew)

                D. Protein main dishes: grilled tilapia; grilled prawns; kenam (fried fish); abobo (cooked cowpeas); aboeboe (boiled bambara beans); adayi (pureed cowpeas); domedu (roast pork); Ashanti fowl

               E. Miscellaneous sauces and seasonings: fresh peppers sauces (green and red); shito; gravy; flavored oils

               F. Starchy/carbohydrate accompaniments:  akpele (corn and cassava dough, simple gari (toasted fermented cassava meal), pino (also from gari), ampesi (boiled starchy vegetables), fried ripe plantain, kenkey, banku (from fermented corn and cassava doughs), oto (a mashed yam and palm oil dish). coated yam; acheke (manioc [cassava] couscous);  TZ (tuo zaafi) from millet, fonio, and/or cassava flour; coconut rice, omo tuo (rice balls); fufu (3 types: cassava, yam, plantain; pounded, microwaved from commercial fufu power, or potato starch and potato buds); yam chips
              G. One-pot cooking: Gari foto w/corned beef; vegetarian gari foto; jollof rice with chicken; jollof rice with beef; vegetarian jollof rice; jollof rice with shrimp; mpotompoto/nyoma, mpihu (yam pottage/soup); waakye (rice and beans)
              H.  Beverages and breakfast porridges and meals: rice water, koko (porridge), Hausa koko, Tom Brown (ablemamu), koklui, iced kenkey, gari potowye (soaking);  ginger beer; lemon grass tea; coconut water; sobolo or bissap (hibiscus iced tea); puha (tamarind drink); shandy; fruit juices; beer and wines with Ghanaian food; contemporary: fruit smoothies, Ghana-inspired hot chocolate
              I. Desserts and baked foods: atwemo (twisted cakes); tiger nut pudding (atadwe milkye, from chufa); sugar bread (loaves and rosca); tea bread; ofam (ripe plantain loaf); caramel custard; fried ice cream; pawpaw fool (papaya); mango fool; groundnut toffee/cake; coconut toffee/cake; fresh papaya with lime fruit salad
Appendix A: Glossary of Ghanaian terms (drafted)
Appenndix B: Suppliers, online resources, restaurants, and bibliography
Appendix C: Akan Day Names

I must admit, this particular labor of love has turned out to be a huge project. Those of you who pray, please keep me in your prayers, that I'll have the stamina and determination to finish this book. I believe my dream will come true, and will become the comprehensive step-by-step guide to cooking Ghanaian (and much of West African) foods that I kept looking for over the past 30 years!

          

                      

                         

                       

    

Recipe #1: Green Plantain Chips

I hope you read yesterday's post about my new challenge to myself. I calculate that if I put up a recipe (at least a draft) every day, taking Saturday and Sunday off, for the rest of the year, that will be 171 recipes. That should cover most of the book. I'll begin with a very popular item throughout Sub-Saharan Africa: green plantain chips. I make these frequently--twice in the last week: once with a cooking class on "The meaning of food" (see the photo on the right) and once for the local Chamber of Business and Industry "Spotlight" for members. Both times we had them with bissap, a hibiscus iced tea, but that recipe is for another day.

BTW, green plantain chips are a great way to impress your friends if you're from Pennsylvania where they're exotic (but not so if you're from, say, Florida), they're cheap and easy to make, and I never have any left over! Our local African Market owner says they're the one sure seller in her store, too. Freshly made chips have it over those packaged ones in the stores any day.

Start with big green plantains. Since they sell them by the "each" in our stores here, I always buy the biggest, greenest ones I can get, but that's not necessarily the most flavorful. Most people won't know the difference. If you plan to use a vegetable peeler to make them into strips, it's a good idea to try and find plantains that are fairly flat as opposed to really curved.

Here's the basic recipe:
Ingredients
1. 2 or 3 large plantains will make enough for several people for a snack
2. vegetable oil for deep frying (I usually use canola)
3. salt to taste
Equipment:
1. a sharp knife a sturdy vegetable peeler (I'm partial to my Farberware one) or mandolin or grater
2. a strainer basket or colander lined with paper towels for draining
3. a heavy deep pan for frying (I use a deep fryer or my large cast iron skillet)
4. cutting board (optional)
5. a long-handled slotted spoon

Directions:
Rinse the plantain and peel it by slicing off each end, then make a long slit along the length without cutting into the plantain itself. Make a cut around the circumference of the center of the plantain peel, also avoiding the actual plantain. This allows you to remove the peeling in pieces.

Use the tip of the knife to pry the peeling loose to get started. Scrape off any fibrous strings on the plantain with the knife.

There are different ways to slice the plantain: some like to cut them into thin circles or ovals on a cutting board. I prefer to make elegant long slices using a potato peeler (or you could use a grater or mandolin). These are easy to make very thin and crisp. Fill the pan or deep fryer not more than half full, then heat the oil to about 365 degrees Farenheit (185 degrees Centigrade). [If I'm using my stove top, the medium high setting will give me approximately the correct temperature, but I do have to turn it up and down to keep it from getting too hot. If you drop a piece of plantain into the oil and it sits on the bottom, the oil is too cold. If as soon as you drop it in it comes to the top and almost immediately begins to brown, the oil is too hot.]

You can either make a bunch of slices and then drop them one by one, or drop them in as you slice each one. I usually get about 1 1/2 dozen slices ready and then put them in. Don't add them all at once or they'll clump. I usually keep nudging them as I put them in to keep them from sticking to each other. Stir with a long-handled spoon to make sure they cook evenly. After a few minutes, remove the chips when they are golden and drain them on a lined colander. If the chips "bend" they're not fully cooked: they should be crispy, like potato chips.

Salt the chips while they are still warm. After they cool, store them in an airtight container.

Hints: I often just lie a plantain on a cutting board and run the peeler along it a few times, turn the plantain over and do the same thing, then turn the plantain a quarter turn to do it again (and finally rotate it one more time, then repeat as necessary. This keeps the slices nice and even and it works for me. If it's too complicated for you, do whatever is easiest. Also, if you don't want to fuss with long slices (or they won't fit in your fryer/pan), just cut the plantains in half and make shorter slices.

Variation: if you prefer spicy, sprinkle the chips with salt AND ground red pepper to taste.

Chips go well with any cold drink, from beer to iced tea. Also, you can make these from plantains that are somewhat yellow, but not soft. They'll look a little darker, and be just a little sweeter. School children particularly love to help make plantain chips (just make sure an adult handles the deep fryer, and that young fingers do not go into the oil or splash it when adding the plantain slices). Oh, by the way, when you get as many plantain slices as you can before the plantain begins breaking apart, don't throw out those odd pieces: fry them up and enjoy them yourself them or hand them out to an observer! If you try this recipe or have any other tips, suggestions, etc., please let me know here (comment) email me ([email protected]), or twitter me.

Here's a not-so-great plantain I have in the kitchen right now. At least it will give you the idea.

They say it's impossible. Is it? I'd like to see.

Today's blog posting is more personal than usual. I need some advice.

I've spent almost 40 years preparing to write a certain book. Along the way I've written other books, and parts of books, but not the one of my dreams--the book to cause Americans to fall in love with one African cuisine: Ghana's. Over the years, every time I've approached editors and agents I've gotten similar responses: "Regrettably, after discussing this carefully and considering potential publishers, we feel that the topic is narrow
and will likely be met with reluctance by publishers." "I don't know where I could place this book." "There is, unfortunately, no market for single-country African cookbooks." "African cookbooks traditionally do not sell well."

With the recent decline of cookbook publishing, even an editor at Hippocrene, a press noted for its regional African cookbook series, had this to say "In this current economic climate, we have just not been able to take on all the projects that we would like. Since our cookbooks are the most expensive to produce and more of a risk in terms of marketability/sales, we have slowed down cookbook acquisitions considerably this year. . . if you are still looking in a year or so, please touch base . . . "

I've been thinking a lot recently, and decided that this negativity is unacceptable. My blog audience and presentations before culinary groups convince me that there are many people out there who ARE interested in more in-depth coverage of the cooking of a specific African country (e.g., Ghana). And the time is NOW to get the cookbook Barbara Baeta have collaborated on since 2002 in print. I'm thinking that I'll turn to you, my blog family, to help with the recipe testing. I'd like to post a recipe a day (gulp--what do you think? is that realistic? there are about 200 recipes) from the cookbook (there are lots of possible titles you can advise me on, too, from The Good Soup Comes From the Good Earth: Regional Cooking of Ghana
to Fran Cooks With Flair: Essentials from Barbara Baeta's West African Kitchen to
Cooking of Ghana: Akara to Tuo Zaafe.)

My children recently encouraged me to read some of Chris Guillebeau's writing (including his free pdf's for "279 Days to Overnight Success" and "A Brief Guide to World Domination," both available at the link above. As I stare age 60 in the face this month, in the back of my mind is the memory of Susan Boyle's brave "I'm going to make that audience rock." Ms. Boyle and Chris are my examples. What do you all think? Would you be ready to support me, test my recipes, give me feedback, and help me live my "impossible" dream? To finish this book, publisher or no, by the end of this year? And to get it into print.