Red - Red, African Yam & Friends

Though I took my camera to dinner I completely forgot to take a photo of what my friend served for dinner: Red-Red (Black Eyed Pea Stew) and African Yams. 

These are dishes from Ghana but other African countries also make and consume these tasty dishes.

I searched several recipes on line and the stew I found in the posted video seems to more closely resemble the black eyed pea stew cooked with tomatoes, scotch bonnet peppers, ginger, garlic and onions.

But I know my friend also used cabbage and bay leaf and perhaps some fish.  Fish (salted or dried, sometimes canned) seems to be the ingredient most often added.  But variations exist. My friend made it with chicken cooked until falling off the bone and shredded/  He served the dish with African yams which I've never had before.

(Photo Credit:  Africana L.L.C) ~This is what uncooked African yam looks like.

(Photo source: Adamara's Blog) ~ This is a cooked African yam with stew.

I love potatos and the African yam reminded me of Russet potatos except that it is more dense.
I've never seen these in

the local grocery store. My friend had to go to the next municipality (about an hour out of town) to buy them.

He said he will make fufu (foofoo, foufou) next time.  I have had it before and I love it. Fufu can be made with many things: cassava, African yams, potato, corn and perhaps more. You pound the ingredient for so long until it becomes soft and sticky like dough.  Once fufu is finished you work a bit of it between fingers and use it to scoop up some soup.  I like mine with ground nut soup.

(Photo credit: Whats4eats) Here are some ladies making yam fufu the traditional way.

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If you would like to try a recipe for Red-Red you can click here for one variation. 

There are many others on line.

I always appreciate friends who take time out of their busy schedules to prepare a meal for me.
The food is generally very tasty when you enjoy sitting down to someone else's labour and shared conversation.

I've asked my friend to join me and my family members for the Christmas meal this year.
He usually goes to his auntie's for holiday meals but his uncle's health is in decline.   His aunt is busy looking after her husband's needs and she doesn't have the energy, strength or time to entertain at the holidays.

We are fortunate to live in a city where people are generally quite hospitable especially at holidays meals.
One can often get an invite or several invites to dinner but it is nice to spend time with friends who are like family.

Come back again soon.
 I hope to share a special event with you next time.

♥♥♥

Enjoy the rest of your week.

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"Do not forget to entertain strangers..."

"Do not forget to entertain strangers for in so doing, some people have
entertained angels without knowing it."
Hebrews 13:2

I've made a new friend from Africa who has been living in Canada for a short time.  When I met him he was very surprised that I had been to his country.  I invited him over for dinner with family members to show some hospitality.  


The first dish is antipasto or some before meal nibbles. I included some salami meat rather mortadella on the dish because I wasn't sure how my guest's taste buds would be.  Moses  loved all the vegetables and gamely tried things he didn't know of like the marinated artichokes.  I learned that the eggplant is known in Ghana as "black beauty". I think that is a much nicer name than "eggplant".

I grilled some home made hamburger patties on my indoor grill. These burgers are not burnt, they are just black from the grill.

Another common summer food here is the potato and egg salad. I let this one marinate over night in the refrigerator and added some red onions for colour and extra flavour.

Last, but not least for the main course, we had some baked chicken. I marinated these chicken pieces in lemon grass marinade overnight. Lemon grass is not traditional to Canada but I have grown to love it in Vietnamese cooking.  I thought it would make a good variation on baked chicken which is a good Canadian dinner staple.  It was delicious and not too strong in lemon grass flavour.

Dinner was capped with drinks of ice tea and other beverages brought by our guest. We also had a dessert of fresh blueberries mixed with bananas. I made a biscuit which we cut and put whipped cream mixed with the berries inside the biscuit. Then the biscuit was topped with more berries and cream.

All in all my guest paid the highest compliment by saying he felt right at home and very comfortable. He also ate everything he put on his plate. I appreciated that very much as sometimes I have guests who won't eat this or won't eat that and they leave too much food on the plate. Those of you who entertain know what I'm talking about.
 
I am glad I was able to entertain a stranger and in doing so have now made a new friend.

Vignettes

This is the day which the LORD hath made;
we will rejoice and be glad in it.

Psalm 118:24

Oh it has been a busy day today.

First, I awoke a bit late so I didn't go to church this morning. I decided to go to the apartment tonight and take in an evening service instead.

I was chatting with a young brother in Kenya and he told me the story of how God miraculously provided money to his father so that his college tuition could be paid. Some of my friends and I have been praying for this young brother, so his testimony was greatly encouraging to me. Needless to say, he was also ecstatic over God's provision for him.

As we were chatting, I received word that my nephew had made an unannounced day trip to Vancouver where I live. It is a 5 hour journey each way by car. He had come down with friends to try and see the Cold Play concert even though he had no ticket and the concert was sold out. I set about readying the hotel suite for guests and getting a parking pass organized for him.

When they got here, his friends decided to go down the street for fabulous Greek food at a well known establishment. My nephew went off with my brother to try and purchase tickets for the show.

The young girl in the photo above is named, "Sarah". She is an international student from Accra, Ghana and it turns out she didn't have a ticket for the concert either. We were able to have a quick visit about her homeland where I visited a few years ago before her and her friends went for their Greek dinner. The young man next to Sarah is Nick, then Joel and my nephew Ryan. It turns out that my brother was able to secure tickets to the concert for both my nephew and for Sarah.

Next up was the evening service where I was treated to some rousing singing by the new choir. This is the first evening service I've attended and I enjoyed enough to want to return.

At my church there are three distinct congregations that worship together in the same building. It is all the same body but each service has its own pastor and worship leaders. Congregants usually attend one of the three services on Sundays and the one I generally attend is the 2nd service on Sunday mornings. We have also started a new sister church on the other side of town, about half way between the church and one of the city's major universities.

I enjoyed evening service and will try to attend again soon mainly because it seems as if they are not having to rush away after service. They spend time trying to build a community of people by having refreshments and mingling. They also do this in the morning but it is harder to do when one service immediately follows the other and the second service ends when most people are having lunch. The evening service has a bit more luxury in terms of time for gathering afterward and this is what I desire.

On my way home, I "ran into" this bull on the sidewalk. The last time I passed this spot an eagle was in his place. I think they change the animal or fowl according to whatever artistic efforts are underway in the city at any given time so it is always interesting to see what you will come across next.

I also passed by our main public library. I love the curves of this building. The library is housed in the shorter circular building. The high rise contains federal (national) government offices.

I got home late and am a little tired but this beautiful scene awaited me. Every night I get to see something this spectacular and I love it!

I forgot to mention that the sermon tonight was on John 17, part of which included how Jesus prayed to his Father to give us, his disciples, joy. How awesome is that?!!

And those my friends, were the key "joyful" vignettes of my day. I hope you also had some "joyful" vignettes in yours. ♥♥♥