For a serving of 4 – 6
Put tomatoes into the blender and set aside. Then, in a non-stick pot, fry pre-cooked meat in oil. When these have browned, remove and set aside.
Add onions and fry until soft before adding garlic and blended tomatoes. Add meat stock and/or stock cube(s), tomato paste, ground white and black pepper and stir. Remember to season strongly because rice will later be added to this sauce.
Cook for ± 10 minutes on medium heat before adding rice. Stir and mix well before covering. Cook on low heat for ± 20 minutes. Add vegetables and mix well. Add about 1 cup more of water and continue to cook on low heat until rice is done.
Cynthia Prah
Cooking and preparation by Gladys Ayipe and Cynthia Prah.
Recipe courtesy of Cynthia Prah.
Cynthia Prah is a mother and homemaker living in Accra, Ghana. She is an excellent cook with a crowd of people who would enthusiastically testify to this. Luckily for me, she is also one of my dear aunts.
Tuleka Prah
Judith Holzer
René Corbett
Title: We’re Doing Fine
Artist: False Awakening
“Now the tomatoes are ready to go into the blender. It’s better to use the pulse button because you don’t want it very, very smooth.
What you do is to fry the meat a little. Brown it actually; it’s already cooked, it doesn’t need too much cooking time. You need a fairly high flame so that it can brown quickly.
And then, in the same oil, fry the onions. And then, when they start softening a bit, you add your garlic, followed immediately by the tomatoes. Then, add the stock for flavour.
And then, let it cook. When it cooks down a little, and you see that it’s about getting like halfway done, you add the rice. Here in the tropics we wash about literally everything because we don’t know where the rice has been kept.
So, you add the rice to the gravy that you’re making. Give it a stir, so that the sauce is evenly distributed. And then, cover it.
When the rice is about halfway cooked, add the meat. Stir. Add your vegetables, in this case we’re using carrots. It can be any vegetable of your choice really. Carrots can also go with string beans; you can add some bell peppers. But we have to remember that you add this when you have about ten minutes cooking time. No more otherwise you’ll get very soggy vegetables.”