Here's what I made tonight.
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| From Where in the World is Dad? |
1. Buy more okra than you really need from Citi-Veg, because it's cheap.
2. A few days ago, make some rice and some beans that you don't finish. Put them in the fridge. You are living alone for the moment, so they will last you days.
3. Look for some Ghanaian recipes. Ooh! Peanut butter stew - that sounds good and you know where to get good peanut butter.
4. Most of them call for chicken. Huh. You don't know where to find decent chicken yet. You've seen some live chickens running around, but they don't belong to you.
5. Don't eat since the previous morning because you're not dealing well with being so far from your family.
6. Consider just skipping the chicken to see what happens, then find recipe that's vegetarian by design. Oh, hey, it even calls for okra, and you've got plenty of okra.
7. Put some palm oil in a pan. Chop up a red onion and put it in. Cook it for a bit, while you chop up some garlic - six cloves. Just throw the garlic in as it's ready, it's cool.
8. Go put on some Johnny Cash, because it's not like you're lonely enough already. Take a minute while "Cry, Cry, Cry" (the "crying song") plays to compose yourself.
9. Chop up the four tomatoes you bought. You thought the lady said one cedi each, which is like US prices, so you said, "saa?" She explained that each little pyramid of tomatoes was one cedi, which is more reasonable. Also, you got some plantains. Don't forget those.
10. Put the tomatoes in, with some salt (measure 1.5t), sugar (measure 1T), and ginger (eyeball). Slit one of those ridiculous hot peppers and throw it in (unless Ruth is there when you make this again, then skip it).
11. Simmer for about 10 minutes. Add a cup of peanut butter, and enough water to make it look like stew.
12. The recipe calls for sweet potatoes, which you don't have. Use butternut squash, which you were surprised to find in Ghana in the first place. But it's all good, because butternut squash > sweet potatoes. Peeling butternut squash is a pain, especially since you only have this really not very good vegetable peeler. But it beats when you did it with a paring knife.
13. So chunk up two of those little butternut squash (probably only one supermarket-size one, for anyone trying to replicate this in the US). Set the whole deal to simmer for a while.
14. Heat up some oil, as well as you can on an electric hot plate. Slice up some plantains and put them in when it seems hot enough. Miss your kitchen thermometer. Miss your wife. Miss your daughter.
15. Slide the plantains in. Work in batches. They're done when they're done.
16. Are the squash chunks tender yet? Nope.
17. OK, when they're tender, the recipe calls for corn. You don't have any corn, but you do have those cooked beans. Beans are... roughly the same shape as corn? Anyway, in they go.
18. Cook for a bit, then stop being lazy and cut up the okra into big chunks.
19. Turn off the heat and stir in the okra, letting it heat through for a few minutes.
20. Serve over sad, cold rice. Eat. Write blog post.
21. Think about how Ruth would probably like the leftover plantains and eggs you're going to have for breakfast tomorrow morning. Hold it together.
22. Hold. it. together.
23. Don't quite hold it together. [Maybe don't read that part to Ruth]
sounds a little bit like Chinese cooking. Know that you are missed too but also glad you are having this opportunity. Love, Dad..
ReplyDeletewith all the chickens running around made me think of what Chuck told me. I asked him what he does with the chipmunks he catches in his 'have a heart' trap. they are eating his tomatoes. He says he grabs them with his hand and squeezes they to death! Pretty brutal but it is quick!
ReplyDeleteRead only #4 to Ruth - running around chickens will make her laugh and her laugh is infectious. The best TLC.
ReplyDelete