Ghana and the Golden Stool

As I’ve mentioned before, we have been taking a day here and there to learn about a random country in the world and answer these questions:

• Where in the world is this country?
• What does their flag look like?
• What is the capital?
• What are their favorite foods to buy and foods to make?
• What bands and musicians have come out of that country?
• What is a brief history of that country?

Yesterday, we learned about Ghana – mainly because I had some Fufu Flour that I had thought about using for the same purpose last year and I wanted a country that made fish stew, because that, too, was what I had in the freezer (Corona time).

We learned a bunch of great facts. The kids watched several youtube videos. One was all about the history of Ghana, one was all about how elites would visit Ghana, and my favorite showed how folks make a living in the rural areas of Ghana.

Fun facts:

• They are the second highest producer of cacao beans and most farmers haven’t ever tasted it since it goes through processing away from the farm.
• The way they load their livestock onto their longboats was both terrifying and hilarious.
• The Ghanaian people became strong by trading guns for slaves. Which was surprising and sad to all of us.
• The boys really caught on to the golden stool that came from heaven.
• Their tattoo patterns are super cool.

The fish stew turned out to be pretty awesome and will probably become a family go to (I added tofu and potatoes and used cod). I would never have mixed those spices together and they were both delicate and flavorful. The fufu had its own learning curve and, to be honest, I think Shu was the only one who really ate his whole ball. It is made of cassava and plantain and reminds me gnocchi…I don’t love gnocchi. Apparently you don’t really chew it, either. It just slides down after you dip it in the stew ;). Finally, Julian made a lime cake that he decided to turn into Madelines. These were awesome and this morning, with coffee, were a big hit.

My favorite things about doing this is we keep finding recipes that become a part of our regular menus AND the boys open their minds a little more. While watching the market video, Vincent made a comment about these guys working so hard harvesting cacao for just 10 Euros – picking the fruit, separating it, bagging it, and driving these tiny mopeds over horrible streets to sell the bags of cacao. I like to think it reminds them of how lucky we are.