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Ghana, Middle East and Africa

Red-Red (Ghanaian Bean Stew with Fried Plantain)

Ghana's comforting everyday plate: black-eyed beans simmered in a red palm oil, onion and tomato sauce, served with sweet fried ripe plantain.

ServingsServes 2
Total cooking time1 h 5 min
Soaking the beans+ 8 h
DifficultyMedium

Method

  1. Pick over and rinse the beans, then soak them overnight (at least 8 hours) in plenty of cold water.

    Add in this stepDried black-eyed beans 120 g

  2. Drain the beans and put them in a 20 cm pot with the water. Bring to the boil on high heat, then turn down to medium-low heat and simmer for , skimming off any foam. When the beans are creamy-soft and crush easily against the roof of your mouth, drain them, keeping about a cup of the cooking liquid.

    Add in this stepWater (for the beans) 1,100 ml

    high heat→medium-low heat

  3. While the beans cook, warm the palm oil in a 20 cm pan on medium-low heat, add the thinly sliced onion and cook for , until soft and translucent. Don't heat palm oil until it smokes; it loses its flavour.

    Add in this stepRed palm oil 3 tbspOnion 1

    medium-low heat

  4. Turn the heat up to medium heat, add the finely chopped garlic, ginger and Scotch bonnet with the tomato paste and fry for . Add the grated tomatoes, shrimp powder and crumbled stock cube and cook for , stirring often, until the sauce is thick and red oil glistens on the surface. Scotch bonnet is very hot: wash your hands after chopping it.

    Add in this stepGarlic cloves 2Fresh ginger 8 gScotch bonnet chilli (or habanero) ½Tomato paste 1 tbspMedium tomatoes 2Ground dried shrimp 1½ tbspChicken stock cube ½

    medium heat

  5. Stir in the beans and half a cup of the reserved liquid and simmer on low heat for . Press some of the beans against the side of the pan with a spoon to make the stew thick and creamy; loosen with a little more liquid if needed, and season with salt.

    Add in this stepSalt to taste

    low heat

  6. Trim the ends of the plantains, slit the skin lengthways and peel it off, then slice on the diagonal 1 cm thick and sprinkle with salt. Pour about 5 mm of oil into a 22 cm frying pan and heat on medium heat (about 170 °C: a slice should sizzle at once), then fry the plantain for per side, until deep caramel-gold. Fry in batches if the pan is crowded and drain on kitchen paper. Watch for spitting oil.

    Add in this stepRipe plantains (yellow with black spots) 1½Vegetable oil (for frying the plantain) 200 mlSalt (for the plantain) 1 pinch

    medium heat

  7. Spoon the stew onto plates with the fried plantain alongside. Sprinkle gari over the beans, Ghanaian style, for a nutty crunch.

    Add in this stepGari (toasted cassava granules, optional) to taste

Cook's tip

The yellower and more black-spotted the plantain skin, the sweeter and softer it fries. Short on time? Use rinsed canned black-eyed beans and start from step 5. Without palm oil you can colour vegetable oil with a little paprika, but the flavour will be different.

Cooking it at camp

Canned beans save a lot of fuel at camp. Cook the stew in one heavy pan, then wipe it out and shallow-fry the plantain, or brush the slices with oil and grill them over charcoal. Let the oil cool completely before dealing with it.