Red Red Stew Recipe-

Ingredients:

• 9 oz. (250 grams) dried red pinto beans (or you can use black eyed peas)
• Red palm oil (a must ingredient, no other oil will give you the real flavor)
• 4 medium sized red onions, rough chopped
• 2 Maggi seasoning cubes, crushed (another must ingredient, for authenticity)
• 1) 7 oz. canned tomato paste
• 1 or 2 Scotch Bonnet chilies, depending on how spicy hot you like it
• 3 cm (1-1/4”) fresh ginger root
• 4 large cloves of garlic
• 8 ripe Roma plum tomatoes, rough chopped, divided
• 10 oz. water
• 3 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. granulated white cane sugar
• Plantains, to serve on the side

Directions:

1. Wash the beans well, then put them in a cooking pot well covered with water, and bring the heat up high, to achieve a rolling boil. Boil the beans for about a half an hour, or until good and tender soft. Drain them in a sieve or colander and set aside.
2. Using a large sauce pan, add in lots of red palm oil, bring the heat up to medium high, and fry your chopped onion for 5 or 6 minutes, until translucent and fragrant, then reduce heat to a mild simmer.
3. While the onions are cooking, using a blender, or, if you’re in the mood to prepare the dish in traditional Ghanaian fashion, a mortar and pestle, grind ½ of the chopped tomatoes, garlic, chilies, Maggi cubes, and ginger into a smooth paste.
4. Add the ground paste into the pan with the onions, then add the rest of the rough chopped tomatoes, the water, salt, and a teaspoon of sugar. Bring the mixture up to a boil, and cook for another half an hour.
5. Now add in the softened and drained beans. This will lower the temperature of the stew, so bring I back to a rolling boil for just 2 or 3 minutes, and then turn the heat off. Let the stew rest for about 15 minutes.
6. Do a taste test, and add spices and salt as needed. Cover the pan and keep nice and warm while you quickly prepare the plantains. (or you could do the plantain preparation while the stew is cooking)
7. Peel the plantains and chop them into small pieces. Fry the pieces in some red palm oil, until they are soft and have turned brown. Drain them of excess oil on some paper towel, and season with just salt and pepper, or any spicier hot seasonings you like.
8. Serve your Red Red Stew in attractive earthen serving bowls placed on a large platter, with the fried plantain pieces encircling the bowl. Or, and this is also typical of the region, you can serve the stew in a bowl with a separate side dish of the fried plantain.

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