Banku and tilapia recipe

Ghanaian staple of maize and cassava dough fermented for days then beaten over heat into a sour smooth paste, eaten with charcoal grilled tilapia and raw pepper sauce.

3 days and 1 hourmedium11 ingredients

Ingredients

• 500 g fermented corn dough
• 250 g cassava dough
• 2 tilapia
• 30 g ginger
• 4 scotch bonnet pepper
• 2 onions
• 3 tomatoes
• 2 clove garlic
• 2 tsp salt
• 3 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1000 ml water

How to make Banku and tilapia

1. Banku begins with fermentation, which cannot be shortened: soak maize and peeled cassava for a day, mill them wet, then leave the doughs covered 2 to 5 days until clearly sour. Ready-made corn dough and cassava dough from an African grocer save the wait.
2. Mix 250 g fermented corn dough with 250 g cassava dough, a ratio of roughly 3 to 1, then whisk in 1 litre of water and 2 tsp salt until no lumps remain.
3. Cook over medium heat stirring without stopping with a flat wooden banku stick for 20 to 30 minutes. It thickens, then stiffens, and you keep beating and folding it against the pot until it is smooth and glossy.
4. Scoop portions with a wet bowl to shape smooth balls and keep them covered so they do not crust.
5. Gut 2 tilapia and slash them to the bone on both sides. Blend 30 g ginger, 2 garlic cloves, 1 onion, 2 scotch bonnets and salt, rub it into the cuts and leave 30 minutes.
6. Grill over charcoal 12 to 15 minutes per side, brushing with oil, until the skin blisters and lifts.
7. Pound the remaining pepper, 1 onion and 3 tomatoes with salt in an earthenware asanka into a rough raw pepper sauce. This bowl is part of the dish, not an option.
8. Serve a ball of banku with the whole fish and the pepper sauce. It is eaten with the right hand, pinching the banku and dipping it.

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