Banku and Tilapia is among the popular Ghanaian foods that has also been well embraced and everyone both newcomers and locals enjoy at all times. It is widely a staple food among the southerners in Ghana with different names among the tribes. Restaurants offer delivery services of the food at a reasonable prices but this is how you can do it yourself at home.
Banku And Tilapia: The Appetizing Ghanaian Food You Can’t Resist
What is Banku and Tilapia made of?
Banku and Tilapia is a staple food in Ghana that has been anticipated by most travelers due the delicious and spicy ingredients that comes into the preparation. The food is made of corn dough, cassava dough, fresh tilapia (fish), pepper, tomatoes and other spices making the dish palatable.
Preparation of banku
Banku is a sticky rounded food with an off white color among the all the various tribes in Ghana but with different names. It has a sour taste, which comes from several days of fermentation of corn to make corn dough. Banku can be eaten with okro stew, all soup but enjoyable with hot pepper sauce with grilled tilapia which we are going to discuss.
It is heavy when eating and devoid of calories.
Ingredients
- 1 lb corn dough
- ¼ lb cassava dough (or up to ½ lb)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup water (or up to 2 cups)
Cooking steps
- Mix and mash your portions of corn and cassava dough in a pot of water, making sure to take out all chunks and fiber pieces in it. Mix the two until a paste is obtained and add some salt. Ensure the mixture is completely smooth devoid of chunks and put on fire.
- With the help of a wooden spatula, stir gently as it gets thicker and thicker and the more force you apply. Support the pot with a napkin and begin to beat through with the wooden spatula. Repeat this for some minutes with brief stops in the middle.
- Use the wooden spatula to make holes in the thick mass, add water and cover to cook. Check on your banku and make sure the water does not fully dry up. Repeat the kneading process until smooth and sticky. Scoop them in balls from the pot into a different bowl.
Preparation of the tilapia and sauce
Ingredients
- Fresh Tilapia (fish)
- Natural spices for seasoning your Tilapia (ginger, garlic, rosemary, cloves)
- Salt to taste
- Fresh tomatoes and pepper
- Onions
The Tilapia
- Wash your Tilapia after taking the scale.
- Spice it with your preferred natural spices including salt to improve taste and leave for some minutes for the fish to be well seasoned with the spices.
- Start to grill the seasoned tilapia in an oven with a temperature of about 200 degrees Celsius.
- Frequently be coating the fish with oil and turning as and when required in order to not stall out on the oven and get all around roasted and cooked.
- By 30 minutes your glazed grilled tilapia should be ready.
The Pepper Sauce
- Wash your new tomatoes, pepper and bulb onions.
- Grind or blend as numerous as you would normally like as some like theirs hot, others not all that hot.
- Add salt to taste and slice some onions on the sauce to garnish it.
Your banku and tilapia with the pepper sauce is ready for serving. For the serving, just place the grilled fish in a plate with the sauce aside and another plate with two balls of banku. Adding sliced onions on the tilapia garnishes the food.
Also read.. How To Prepare Ghanaian Jollof
Tomato ketchup can also be added to the serving for people with low intake of pepper. Addition of sliced avocados makes the food mouth watery.
Conclusion
Grilled tilapia goes with every food like Jollof Rice, Yam, and so on. Banku also goes well with all kind of soups and stew so be adventurous by trying the different taste from this Ghanaian food.
Thank you reading this article.
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