By Soyokour Quarcoo Tchire
Banku, an energy-giving food, is a very widespread Ghanaian dish, but is especially appreciated by the people of the southern regions of Ghana –namely the Ewe, Fante and Ga tribes but also eaten across the other regions of the country. It is traditionally made from a combination of fermented corn and cassava dough. This food is paired with okro soup or stew, freshly ground pepper, gravy or any stew or soup of one’s choice. In our kitchen today, let’s prepare banku on CHOPOLOGY.
The main ingredients for banku are maize and cassava dough, salt and water. Mix the cassava and corn dough with water until smooth and droopy. Pour into a pot and put on fire. Keep stirring continuously with a wooden stirrer to avoid lumps. Depending on one’s preference, add water to the food to soften it when too hard. Smoothen any lumps found. Keep cooking until well cooked. If you are not sure that your banku is ready, test it by putting a small bit of it in water. Banku when ready should not dissolve in water easily.
When cooking, it is easy to assume the steamed mixture is too soft, however, the banku gets firmer as it cools down after serving. Once cooked, the banku is dished out and traditionally shaped by hand, quickly dipping fingers into cold water then folding the dumpling into a ball. You may serve the banku with grilled fish and ground pepper, okro stew or soup, ground pepper and fried fish, fantefante or any other type of stew or soup.
Watch the video below;
https://youtu.be/xVFa9YWkSAI
