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Waakye and Stew

I'm not going to pretend to know much about Ghanaian cuisine, or even enough about it to confidently say that this truly is a Ghanaian dish. The story of this recipe is that I was on temporary duty to Fort Belvoir and found a Ghanaian restaurant near where I was staying (Rahama, right off U.S. Route 1) and ordered their Waakye, which came with a seemingly tomato-based stew. It was probably the best take-out I've had in my life, so I did some research and landed on this recreation.

This is also quite spicy. I once offered a bowl to my partner and they were unable to finish more than a bite.

waakye-stew.jpg
Figure 1: Piping hot bowl of waakye (left) and the accompanying stew (right) with a hard-boiled egg. I actually dropped the ball on this batch; I prefer my waakye to have a much deeper mahogany color. In this case, I skimped on the waakye leaves and paid for it. I also didn't caramelize the tomato as much as I typically like to.

Ingredients

Waakye

  1. Sorghum stems; 6.
  2. black-eyed peas, dry; 2 cups.
  3. Brown sweet rice1, dry; 2 cups.
  4. Salt; 1 tbsp.
  5. Baking soda; 1 tsp.

Stew

  1. Fennel seed; 3 tbsp.
  2. Coriander seed; 3 tbsp.
  3. Cubeb tail pepper; 1 tbsp;
  4. Cloves; 6.
  5. Calabash nutmeg; 3.
  6. Corn oil.
  7. Eggs; 8.
  8. Stewing beef; 6 lbs.
  9. Red onion; 3.
  10. Garlic; 6 cloves.
  11. Ginger; 1".
  12. Habanero2 pepper; 6.
  13. Tomato paste; 24 oz.
  14. Tomato puree; 28 oz.
  15. White miso; 2 tbsp.
  16. Salt; 1 tbsp.
  17. Smoked shrimp or crayfish powder; 2 tbsp.

Equipment

Waakye

  • Large pot.

Stew

  • Cutting board and knife.
  • Spice grinder.
  • Vessel for toasting spices (pan or microwave-safe bowl).
  • Small blender.
  • Dutch oven or similarly-sized pot.
  • Small pot for boiling eggs.
  • At least one bowl for holding intermediaries, but it's nice to have a couple handy.
  • A spider or a slotted spoon is helpful when frying the beef.
  • An oven is preferable, but you definitely can do this on the stovetop.

Steps

Waakye

  1. Add about 6 cups of water to a pot with the baking soda, salt, and sorghum stems. Boil for an hour.
  2. Remove the stems, and add the black-eyed peas. Cook for about 15 minutes to give them a head start.
  3. Add the rice, cover, and reduce to a simmer.

Stew

  1. Toast the dry spices (fennel, coriander, pepper, cloves, nutmeg) and grind into a powder. Set aside.
  2. Cut the beef into cubes, maybe an inch or so in size. Set aside.
  3. Slice two of the onions lengthwise into slivers. Set aside.
  4. Blend the remaining onion, the garlic, the ginger, and the habanero peppers. Set aside
  5. Add about a quarter inch of corn oil to the dutch oven and fry the beef in batches. Remove from the pot and set aside.
  6. Ensure there's enough oil left, and then fry the sliced onion. When it's sufficiently softened, add the spices, then the tomato paste, and the salt. Fry the tomato paste until it's deeply caramelized, but take care not to burn it. Then add the tomato puree, and ensure it has a chance to fry as well.
  7. Add the beef and the miso. If there isn't enough substance to cover everything, add some water. Stew low and slow. I've settled on 6 hours at 275°F in the oven, uncovered, but it isn't an exact science. You want the beef to be tender and the gravy to be nice and deeply browned.

  8. Within the last hours of cooking, hard-boil some eggs, peel them, and add them to the stew, along with the shrimp or crayfish powder. You want them to absorb some of the flavor from the gravy while not completely overcooking them.

    waakye-stew-done.jpg
    Figure 2: Cooking without a lid encourages browning.

Notes

Cubeb tail pepper and calabash nutmeg will probably be hard to find if you don't have a local African grocer. Before I moved to NoVA, I'd substitute regular black peppercorns for the cubeb tail pepper, and regular nutmeg for the calabash nutmeg. You can also skip the smoked shrimp/crayfish powder if you're having trouble finding that.

The nice thing about black-eyed peas is that they cook relatively quickly without soaking, so I just cook them straight from dry in this recipe.

This recipe probably could be done in a slow cooker or similar appliance, just ensure you get enough browning on the tomatoes during the initial frying stage.

Footnotes:

1

: Short-grain Japonica rice. A.K.A. Glutinous rice. Oryza sativa var. glutinosa.

2

: I've also made this with scotch bonnet peppers but I actually prefer the habaneros.

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