- Hey everybody, we are at Pop Brixton,
which is this huge, very cool shipping container yard,
that has a lot of different small businesses here
in the Brixton neighborhood of London.
We are headed over to Zoe's Ghana Cuisine.
Ghana's a small nation on the southern coast
of West Africa, about 27 million people,
next to Togo, Burkina Faso, Cote D'ivoire,
the Atlantic Ocean to the south.
The food is very exciting.
I haven't had a lot.
It has it's own traditions
and borrows from a lot of other West African traditions.
You can expect some beef kebabs,
starches like cassava and plantain.
It's gonna be really interesting, really eye opening.
Can't wait to talk to Zoe, and try some of her food.
(playful music)
- So Zoe's Ghana Kitchen was born outside my front door.
Hackney Wicked Arts Festival 2011.
- Wow.
- I decided to cook up this dish called Peanut Butter Stew,
which is based on groundnut soup,
and that's kind of how the idea started,
and then that turned into a regular supper club in my house,
and then that turned into residencies and pop-ups.
It's modern West African kind of small plates of food.
- What are some of the other flavors?
- So they're be quite a few different flavors today.
- Let's have some food.
- Yeah, I look forward to feeding you.
- Let's go to the kitchen.
(playful music)
So red bean stew,
and we have specially prepared plantain,
covered with ground cassava.
Mmmm.
Yeah, come sit with me.
- So it's um, like cowpeas-- - Super good.
- Black-eyed beans, slowcooked.
So I have a base sauce that's
fresh tomatoes, fresh ginger, fresh onion, fresh--
- Mmmhmm.
It's sort of, like it reminds me of some Caribbean food
that I've had this year that has that.
This is great.
- You need to get stuck into this beef though.
- This is the Suya Kebab.
- Yeah, so the Suya, again,
is taken from a street food vibe.
So you've got your ground cloves,
freshly crushed peanuts, again onion,
a bit of garlic, bit of cinnamon.
It's quite deep, smoky flavors.
- To someone who hasn't had before,
like, sort of the closest I could come
and be like, it's like West African satay sauce,
or something like that.
I mean it's obviously, the spices are different.
And this is, this is like quite spicy.
It's spicier than I thought it would be.
- Yeah.
- I don't think I was anticipating that.
- But a different kind of spicy.
That's like got heat to it,
and this one's like the warming Christmasy vibe,
as you were saying.
- Mmmmhmm.
It's really nice to have the, the joll-,
this is like a fruity jolloff relish,
to go alongside with this, you know,
kind of earthy peanut sauce.
And get that nice spice,
get that nice clove taste.
- So tilapia is a really, yeah,
hugely popular fish, and I love,
it's one of my favorite fishes actually.
It's really meaty, but really light.
Really simply pan-fried,
with lime, salt and black pepper,
in that baobab butter I was talking about,
with the cayenne through it.
- Yeah.
- And then it's just served
with a moringa powder and spiced cashew.
- So you're eating it with this,
sort of flaky white fish tilapia,
and then it is sort of combining it
with like a shot of wheatgrass.
- Yeah. (laughs) - You know what I mean?
- That's it, wheatgrass. - Which is,
which is interesting.
- Oh, do you want a dessert?
- The Puff Puff is Ghanaian doughnut
rolled in cinnamon and sugar,
and this divine chocolate plantain sauce.
- Mmmhmmm.
It's a good dessert.
(laughs)
Um, you're right, it is like, slightly denser.
Almost like a cake doughnut.
- Yeah.
- I really hope you enjoy this episode of
Dining on a Dime, from Zoe's Ghana Kitchen,
in Pop Brixton, in London, England.
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