Ghana. Not a country you might think of when you think of the Winter Olympics. In fact, Ghana has one athlete competing in the skeleton event and his name is Akwasi Frimpong. You can read more about his journey to the PyeongChang Games here and watch him compete on Thursday the 15th. It's also worth mentioning that a Ghanian born athlete, Maame Biney, became the first African American woman to qualify for the US Olympic team in speedskating. You can watch her compete tomorrow (Feb 13) in the short track event.
For the dinner menu, I prepared Chicken Chinchinga, yam balls, and Ghanian vegetable curry. Full disclosure: I modified the recipes slightly, mostly because I didn't need to make as much as it wanted me to make. What follows below is my modified versions. For the original recipes, please click on the name of the recipe. For the chicken recipe, it called for grilling the kebabs with onion and green pepper. Since we had a very similar kebab two days ago, I decided to forgo the grilled veggies and just made chicken kebabs. Following my forgetful pattern, I forgot to add the suya powder to the chicken before my husband began grilling, so he spritzed the 1/2 cooked chicken with water and added it at that point. I also had a weird mishap (read deep frying oil volcano) with the yam balls which resulted in me having to throw a batch away.
The Verdict: The chicken was very tasty! I would definitely make it again. The yam balls were also surprisingly good (and I do not like yams usually). I am not a curry fan, but this one was a decent blend of flavor. My oldest really liked the curry but wasn't a fan of the yam balls. The younger two liked the chicken, didn't care for the curry, and thought the yam balls were just okay.
The recipes for Chicken Chinchinga and the yam balls came from the Waakye Leaf food blog. The recipe for the Ghanian vegetable curry came from Recipes Wiki.
For the dinner menu, I prepared Chicken Chinchinga, yam balls, and Ghanian vegetable curry. Full disclosure: I modified the recipes slightly, mostly because I didn't need to make as much as it wanted me to make. What follows below is my modified versions. For the original recipes, please click on the name of the recipe. For the chicken recipe, it called for grilling the kebabs with onion and green pepper. Since we had a very similar kebab two days ago, I decided to forgo the grilled veggies and just made chicken kebabs. Following my forgetful pattern, I forgot to add the suya powder to the chicken before my husband began grilling, so he spritzed the 1/2 cooked chicken with water and added it at that point. I also had a weird mishap (read deep frying oil volcano) with the yam balls which resulted in me having to throw a batch away.
The Verdict: The chicken was very tasty! I would definitely make it again. The yam balls were also surprisingly good (and I do not like yams usually). I am not a curry fan, but this one was a decent blend of flavor. My oldest really liked the curry but wasn't a fan of the yam balls. The younger two liked the chicken, didn't care for the curry, and thought the yam balls were just okay.
The recipes for Chicken Chinchinga and the yam balls came from the Waakye Leaf food blog. The recipe for the Ghanian vegetable curry came from Recipes Wiki.
Chicken Chinchinga
Ingredients
Directions
Blend the ginger, garlic, onion, stock cube and Maggi seasoning with the oil to form a
smooth paste. Put the chicken in the marinate, and refrigerate for at least an hour. Remove from fridge and skewer the seasoned chicken pieces on kebab sticks.
Combine all the ingredients for the suya seasoning and mix together. Sprinkle the skewered chicken with the suya seasoning and grill until chicken is fully cooked, rotating during cooking to brown all sides evenly then serve.
Yam Balls
1 medium Yam
7 TBSP butter
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp paprika
1 egg yolk (keep the egg white)
1 egg (add the remaining egg white and whisk into a mixture)
Pinch of ground white pepper
Pinch salt
1-2 cups Panko breadcrumbs
Directions
Peel
and cut the yam into one inch cubes. Place
them in a pot of water and boil until the yam pieces are soft. It took maybe 8-10 minutes. Drain the water from the pan, add the butter,
egg yolk, garlic powder, white pepper, paprika, and salt. Mash all the ingredients together while the
yam is still warm, then put the mixture in the fridge until it cools.
While
it is cooling, place the leftover egg white and the 2nd egg in a bowl and whisk
until fully blended. Put breadcrumbs in
a separate bowl.
Once
the yam mixture has cooled, roll into small balls, dip into the egg mixture and
dredge through the breadcrumbs, making sure each is coated evenly.
Heat
oil in a wok or large saucepan. Carefully drop a few of the balls into the hot
oil with a wooden spatula and cook them until they rise to the top and are
golden brown and crisp. This usually
takes about 3 minutes if your oil is the correct temperature. Once golden brown, remove the yam balls and
allow them to drain on paper towel, then place them in a warm oven until ready
to serve. Repeat this process until all
balls are cooked.
Ghanian Vegetable Curry
Ingredients
1 sweet potato, peeled and cubed
1 medium eggplant, cubed
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
3 carrots, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
6 TBSP olive oil
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp ground tumeric
2 tsp curry powder
1 tsp cinnamon
3/4 TBSP salt
3/4 TBSP cayenne pepper
1 15 oz can chick peas, drained
1/3 cup sliced almonds
1 zucchini, sliced
2 TBSP raisins
1 cup of orange juice
10 oz fresh spinach leaves
Directions
Heat 3 TBSP of oil over medium heat in a Dutch oven. Once heated, add sweet potato, eggplant, peppers, carrots, and onion and saute for 5 minutes.
Heat 3 TBSP of oil in a medium sauce pan over medium heat. Add garlic, tumeric, curry powder, cinnamon, salt and pepper and saute for 3 minutes.
Pour garlic and spice mixture over the vegetables in the Dutch oven. Add the chick peas, almonds, zucchini, raisins, and orange juice. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add spinach to the pot and cook about 5 more minutes, until spinach has fully wilted. Serve warm!
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