Hello.
This is 6 Minute English
from BBC Learning English.
I'm Sam.
And I'm Rob.
Now, all over
the world people love
to eat, and most of us
have favourite food we
like to cook.
Often,
this involves a recipe -
that's written down
instructions explaining
how you combine the
different items of food
you are going to cook -
the ingredients - into
a meal.
My favourite
recipe is for bangers
and mash - a cheap and
popular British meal
made of sausage and
mashed potato.
Cooking is a big part
of our lives, something
pleasurable we do with
others, and a way of
discovering the
flavours and tastes
of other cultures.
In this programme,
we'll be doing just
that - discovering the
food culture of Ghana
in west Africa, and
hearing about one
woman's quest to
preserve her country's
traditional recipes.
And, as usual, we'll
be learning some related
vocabulary along the way.
But before we start,
I have a question
for you, Rob.
Your
favourite recipe is
the classic British dish,
bangers and mash.
It's easy to understand
why mashed potato is
called 'mash' - but
how did sausages come
to be known as 'bangers'?
Is it: a) because 'bang'
is an old-fashioned word
for pork?
b) because sausage-making
machines used to make a
banging noise?
or
c) because sausages would
explode in the frying pan,
going 'bang'?
I think it's a) - 'bang'
is an old-fashioned
word for pork.
OK, Rob, I'll reveal the
correct answer later.
Food writer, Abena
Offeh-Gyimah, was born
in Ghana but moved to
Canada as a child.
After school she would
go for burgers and
fries with friends,
before heading home
to eat traditional
Ghanaian food with her
family, food cooked
with ingredients like
dawadawa, a spice made
from roasting
locust beans, and fufu.
Her mother's cooking
gave Abena a love of
traditional recipes - so
much so that five years
ago, she moved back
to Ghana to rediscover
her country's food
culture.
But when she
arrived, Abena was
surprised how much
things had changed.
Many traditional spices
and ingredients were
no longer being used,
and it was more
common to see tomato
ketchup than Ghanaian
chipotle sauce.
Here Abena describes
how her grandparents
used to cook in the
old days, to BBC World
Service programme,
The Food Chain.
So, they would actually
cook the yam, they
would cook the plantain,
and they would use,
you know, the mortar
and pestle to actually
pound it, you know.
Now in Ghana, you could
just buy potato flour
and just make fufu on
the stove.
But we're
losing that, right?
That communal experience
of cutting the yam
and cutting the plantain
and cooking it.
Abena's grandparents
made fufu the
traditional way, using
ingredients like yam
and green bananas
called plantains.
These were placed in
a mortar and pestle -
cooking equipment made
of a bowl - the mortar -
and a heavy stone - the
pestle - which is
used to grind
ingredients together.
The traditional method
was to pound fufu - to
crush it into a paste
or powder.
But nowadays
many people buy ready-made
flour and cook fufu the
modern way, on a stove.
For Abena, this
represented an unwelcome
departure from ancestral
ways of cooking, and
she decided that
something had to be
done.
Here's Ruth
Alexander, presenter
of BBC World Service's,
The Food Chain, to
continue the story:
Abena was so taken
aback about the loss
of know-how about
Ghana's traditional
recipes and ingredients
in the towns and
cities, that she
decided she had to
do something, and
set off to rural
areas on a
fact-finding tour.
We travelled across
the Accra East region
in Ghana, just to
document indigenous
dishes, and to ask
'what are people
eating now?', and
learning that a lot
of dishes are lost.
Abena was taken aback
by the changes in
Ghana's food culture -
she felt shocked and
surprised.
Traditionally,
recipes were passed
down orally from mother
to daughter, instead
of being written down,
so a generation of
young Ghanaians were
losing cooking
know-how - the practical
skills and knowledge
of how to do something.
Abena travelled around
Ghana to document
traditional recipes -
to record information
about them by writing
them down, or taking
photos, before they
were lost forever.
If her story has
inspired you to find out
about your own country's
traditional recipes, or
discover more about
Ghanaian cooking, you
can read more on
Abena's website,
Living the Ancestral Way.
And after all this
talk of traditional
Ghanaian food, it's time
for your question about
a traditional British
recipe, bangers and
mash - or sausage and
mashed potato.
Now,
you asked about the
name 'banger', and I
guessed that 'bang'
was an old-fashioned
word for pork.
So, was I right?
You were wrong, I'm
afraid, Rob.
The name
'banger' started in
World War One, when
meat shortages resulted
in sausages being made
using water, that
caused them to explode,
going 'bang!',
when cooked.
Well, that's certainly
one way to spice up
your cooking!
OK, let's
recap the rest of the
vocabulary, starting
with mortar and
pestle - a bowl and
a heavy stone which
is used to grind
ingredients together.
To pound something means
to crush it into
a paste or powder.
If you're taken aback,
you feel shocked
and surprised.
Know-how is the practical
skill and knowledge
needed to do something,
such as cook.
And finally, the verb
document means to record
information about
something by writing
about it or taking photos.
Once again, our six
minutes are up.
Bye for now!
Bye!