flowers, food

Check out this weird flower I passed on my way to work today:



It's on what is either a very finely branched tree or a huge bush (can't really tell, the trunk is on the other side of a wall). I pass this plant every day, and just earlier this week, dozens of the flowers suddenly popped out all over it. Must be a rainy-season thing.

Also, I passed this flowering tree on my travels last week. Gorgeous! And smelled fantastic!



In other news, here are some shots of our dinner last Sunday. We went to one of our local sit-down Ghanaian restaurants, Country Kitchen. (heh, I doubt there's any relation to the North American one.)

Here's what I had: one of my new favourite dishes, omo tuo and palm-nut soup. Omo tuo is a kind of mashed rice ball, and for some reason it's usually only available on Sundays. The soup is nutty and very spicy, and that's grilled chicken in there on the right-hand side.



And here's one of my other favourite dishes, boiled yam with palaver sauce. Jason also had chicken on the side (as opposed to goat or mutton, the other options):



That one's so good, I thought I'd send the recipe so you could try it at home. This recipe is from the Calabash Cookbook, which we bought at the Green Turtle.

I'm not sure how common red palm oil and agushi powder is across the Atlantic. Maybe you could find it at Dino's? If any of you look for it and can't find it, let me know and we can bring some home with us.

Also, the yams here are different than yams back home. They're not like sweet potatoes. More like regular potatoes. So you might want to just use potatoes.

Yam + Palaver Sauce (serves 6)

Ingredients:

500 g contombre (leaves taken from the cocoyam plant, or any green leaves, i.e. spinach)
200 ml red palm oil
8 tbsp agushi powder (ground pumpkin seeds)
2 tbsp water
1 tsp salt, 1 tsp pepper
2 large onions, thinly sliced
6 tomatoes
6 tbsp tomato puree
5 small chilies or 1 tbsp chili powder (or to taste)
1 yam, sliced into 1-1/2 inch thick discs
water for boiling yams
pinch of salt

Method:

Heat the palm oil and fry the onions until they start to go soft. Add the chili, tomatoes and tomato puree. Simmer until it makes a thick sauce.

Peel and wash the yam and slice into discs. Cut each disc in half. Cut enough for four halves per person. Put the yam in a large saucepan. Add enough water to cover the yams, add salt, and bring to a boil. Boil 15 – 20 minutes and drain – yams should feel soft when pierced with a fork.

Meanwhile, finely chop the green leaves and add to tomato sauce. Bring to a boil and simmer until the sauce has reduced and the leaves are soft. Mix agushi with 1 – 2 tbsp of water to make a thick paste. Add to the pan and stir through. Season with salt and pepper.

Cook for a further five minutes. Remove sauce from heat and serve with boiled yam.

And, I'd recommend, cold beer. I don't think you can get Star or Club beer there (well, not the same Club as here, anyway. It's not "brewed for people like you" over here), but a nice light lager should suffice.

Bon appetit! Let me know how it goes if you try it.