Ghana - Kenkey

 

Background
Ghanian cuisine consists of a lot of stews with cassava, yam, and corn as major starches. The protein sources are lots of smoked and dried fish. Spicy condiments are very popular. Ghana has over 100 ethnic groups so a diversity of cuisines is expected.
I found two choices for our breakfast. The first dish option was ampesi, a mixture of boiled starchy vegetables served with boiled onions and fish. The second choice was a dish made of fermented cornmeal called kenkey. I was able to find two recipes for both dishes in A West African Cookbook and A Good Soup Attracts Chairs. My initial leaning was towards the ampesi because the kenkey seemed a little too close to ugali. After getting my hands on the recipes for both, one factor in the kenkey recipe from two different sources jumped at me. The instructions tell you to remove any mold that might have grown on the dough during the fermentation process. This warning was slightly scary. Kitty then reminded me that part of this project was to try the slightly scarier things. We went with the kenkey.
As we did further research online looking into the appropriate sauce to serve with kenkey. Ga Kenkey, also called komi, is eaten in the coastal areas. It is fermented for 2-3 days and steamed in corn husks. The name is taken from the Ga-Adangbe people who inhabit the south east coast. Fanti kenkey is fermented for 5-6 days and is steamed in a plantain leaf. This version takes its name from the Fanti people who live on the southwestern coast. We chose to make ga kenkey because we really did not have enough fermentation time (or ambition) for the other.
Our next step was tracking down a recipe for the a chili sauce called shito. Shito is essentially the ketchup or the barbeque sauce of Ghana. It is made from tomatoes, dried shrimp and fish, oil and chili powder. More of the recipes describe how the fish smell fills the house and one recipe involving a slow cooker recommends doing it all outside. The scale of these recipes were also huge. We decided to make a spicy tomato sauce with onion, chili powder, and fish sauces to approximate shito.
We also chose to use a pressure cooker in order to speed up the cooking time. Traditionally kenkey is steamed and takes 60 to 90 minutes. We based on timing for this on pressure cooker recipes for vegetarian tamales. We include both pressure and steaming directions in the recipe below.

Kenkey

• 3 cups white stone-ground cornmeal (not de-germinated)
• 1 tbsp corn starch
• 3 cups warm water (105-115°F)
• 1 tsp salt
• dry corn husks

1. Put cornmeal and cornstarch into a bowl.
2. Add the warm water and stir until you get a smooth batter/dough.
3. Loosely cover the bowl the bowl with a cloth or wax paper and set in a warm out of the way place for 2 days.
4. When you are ready to use the dough start by scraping off and discarding any mold that might have formed. *see note in discussion
5. Divide the dough in half.
6. Bring 2 cups of water to a boil in large sauce pan. Once the water is boiling, add the salt and reduce to medium heat.
7. Add half the dough to the water and mix it in. Let it cook for 10 minutes and stir to prevent scorching.
8. Remove the pan from the heat, stir in the remaining dough, and mix thoroughly.
9. Divide the dough into 3 or 4 large portions and put them onto corn husks.
10. Shape the dough into balls.
11. Wrap the corn husk around the ball tying it at the top.
12. Steam or pressure cook as follows:
1. Steaming
1. Pour hot water into a steamer pot and put a rack on top of it.
2. Put the wrapped kenkey on the rack and bring the water to a boil using high heat.
3. Reduce to low heat and steam for around 90 minutes.
2. Pressure Cooking
1. Put the wrappers into the pressure cooker, elevated on a rack.
2. Add enough water to the pressure cooker to meet the minimum safe level given by the manufacturer.
3. Cook for 20 minutes at 15 psi.
4. Quick release the pressure, then open the pressure cooker so the steam releases way from your face.
13. Let them cool for ten minutes.
14. Serve with shito and lightly cooked sardines.

Results and Discussion
A quick summary of this meal is expressed mathematically as Kenkey > Ugali. The fermentation process gives the kenkey its own flavor. The finished kenkey is a large spongy unit very similar to a tamale. Our ersatz shito was a very nice sauce that provides some additional moisture and lots of taste. I see why various websites describe it as the ketchup or BBQ sauce of Ghana.
The fermentation process was pretty interesting to watch. The mixture starts as cornmeal suspended in water. The book described it as a dough after the mixing step. I mixed for several minutes but I never got beyond a runny batter. I covered the batter and put into a cooled oven. That evening I checked on it and saw a water with the cornmeal settled out. I put my hand in the batter and felt that a dough-ish substance had formed below the water. A day later it looked the same. On the morning we made the breakfast I pulled away the cloth and found that a dough had formed. (We didn't get any mold, by the way. Frankly, I would be pretty leery of eating anything soft that had mold on it, mycotoxins can be pretty evil. —Kitty)
I proceeded to divide the dough and found that lots of water was beneath it. I think that the gas released by the fermentation caused the dough beneath the surface to fracture allowing the water to drain to the bottom. A sour smell had started to develop. I though the dough might be too watery as I added it to the boiling water. The dough quickly thickened and the problem went away.
When wrapping the dough we tried a mix of corn husks and aluminum foil. Tying off the corn husks and finding husks large enough were difficult. Wrapping the dough in aluminum foil was really easy. Kenkey was much easier to remove from the husks. In the future we decided that we would go with a double wrap using corn husks on the inside and foil on the outside.