The cheap unifier

So, I am a food lover...Okay, let me try to rephrase that! I love food…not that I love to eat but I just love food. You will get me in a bit if you haven’t by now.

Frankly, when it comes to choosing what to eat, I can be very selective. When I feel like eating a particular dish, I try to cook or find it. I won’t say I’m a chef but I do try to make tummies happy.

As a freshman in the University in 2009, I found myself in an all-female hall of residence. My hall-mates and I wanted to be seen mostly cooking for ourselves and hardly buying food from “outside”. So, of course, we mostly cooked for ourselves.

When we had about a week till the end of the semester, most people would complain of being cash-trapped. Our (just about 10 of us) solution to that problem would be to bring together the little monies we all had left, cook something and eat together till we went on vacation.

Unanimously deciding on what to cook was always an issue because we all had different preferences. However, one day, I suggested “ԑtͻ” – a Ghanaian dish made from semi-ripe plantain.

My friends enjoyed it so much and fortunately for me, it was one of the delicacies that won me the heart of my now husband.

Below are the ingredients and the recipe:

Ingredients

Semi-ripe plantain (any number of fingers you want)

Pepper (red/green)

Onion

Groundnut paste/Peanut butter

Palm oil

Salt

Salted tilapia (optional)

Egg(s) (optional)

Avocado (optional)

Groundnuts/Peanuts (optional)

Recipe

1. Wash the semi-ripe plantain, pepper, onion and salted tilapia.

2. Peel the semi-ripe plantain and cut into desirable pieces (not too small).

3. In a clean saucepan, put in the cut plantain, salted tilapia and eggs. Add water and bring to boil.

4. In another saucepan, pour the palm oil and add sliced onions. Let this be on very low heat.

5. In an earthenware bowl, grind the pepper. Add the groundnut paste/peanut butter and add salt to taste.

6. When the palm oil is hot, take it off the fire and add to the mixture in the earthenware bowl. Gently and carefully continue to grind.

7. When the plantain is cooked, drop them in the earthenware bowl in bits and grind with the rest of the ingredients.

8. Add more palm oil and salt as desired.

9. When all the ingredients have mixed up nicely, garnish with the boiled eggs, sliced avocado and groundnuts/peanuts.