During discussions over a long, drunken lunch at Les Pipos I felt it was of paramount importance that I offer my services as a guest chef to assist in taking some of the pressure from my dear friend in sourcing and preparing a World Cup dinner. I love to cook and, more importantly, love a party so what better way to celebrate our recent return to Paris and our new Parisian home. Mr W deemed Ghana as my challenge ..... Erm, ok, GAME ON.
As an eternal optimist, a life-long resource investigator and, most importantly, having a husband who has colleagues working in Ghana (cheers Mr D and Wee R) I was armed with details of a traditional menu, and recipes with a little help from the wonderful website Ghana Nation. As Paris is a huge melting pot of nationalities, even sourcing traditional Ghanaian products was a breeze, and I'd like to give thanks to my new friend from Togo who filled my basket with everything I needed for the feast at the Togo Exotique store. Although he seemed to lose interest, and appeared offended, when I refused the beer from Togo and asked for Ghanaian Star Beer instead – which sadly wasn't to be found.
As an eternal optimist, a life-long resource investigator and, most importantly, having a husband who has colleagues working in Ghana (cheers Mr D and Wee R) I was armed with details of a traditional menu, and recipes with a little help from the wonderful website Ghana Nation. As Paris is a huge melting pot of nationalities, even sourcing traditional Ghanaian products was a breeze, and I'd like to give thanks to my new friend from Togo who filled my basket with everything I needed for the feast at the Togo Exotique store. Although he seemed to lose interest, and appeared offended, when I refused the beer from Togo and asked for Ghanaian Star Beer instead – which sadly wasn't to be found.
The only issue I had was having to negotiate the nine circles of hell to get to this amazing African market in Rue Dejean in the 18th arrondissement – Marché Dejean. If you ever need an animal's head or fancy some meat still with its teeth in then this is the place to go.
Menu
- Cassava Chips
- Groundnut Soup garnished with fufu, fried plantain, prawns and crushed peanuts
- Mango and pineapple salad, with chili and coriander
- Garlic chicken with yam jollof rice and 'red red'.
- Myllabbua (groundnuts and rice flour flavoured with rose water) / Raspberry Fool
With a Ghanaian Party Mix found on YouTube we had the beginnings of a party.
The five guests have over the past three years had many memorable nights and can/will create a party in an empty house. Ghana night proved to be another fantastic memory: from laughing about my fufu (further details can be provided as to why this was particularly funny – unless your name is Baz!) to being astonished at how tasty and different our dishes were.
We finished the end of the night with full bellies and the Beatles via Oz, a series of show tunes, a demonstration of our favourite tap dance moves, and clockwork doll dancing à la Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Did I mention there was wine!
All in all, I feel I did Mr W and Ghana proud and had a fantastic night with good friends.
A bientôt!
The Verdict
An absolutely fantastic evening with delicious food, and all served with beautiful presentation and a beautiful smile from Mrs D. A lot of effort was put into creating the perfect Ghanaian atmosphere, all stops were pulled out, therefore scoring a whopping 10 out of 10. My favourite dish was the dessert of Myllabbua - with the delicate flavouring of rose water, it was superb and the favourite of all the desserts we have had so far in our series of World Cup dinners.
We are now on twitter - why not follow us @worldcupdinners - feel free to tweet us with recipes and ideas, and also if you've made any themed dinners we'd love to see your pictures!
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