Fran Osseo-Asare

The Ghana Cookbook explores the flavors, ingredients and techniques most common in Ghana. With an emphasis on fresh, local ingredients--especially vegetables, fruits and legumes--Ghana's cuisine is vibrant, healthful and eminently appealing. Also, since Ghana cannot grow wheat, most of its traditional recipes are gluten-free. The authors highlight the flavor principles, seasoning techniques, and basic stocks, with later chapters dedicated to snacks, soups and stews, protein entrees, beverages, baked goods, and much more. Among the 140 recipes, you'll find Kofi Brokeman (roasted ripe plantain and dry roasted peanuts), Fante-fante Fisherman's Soup, Jollof Rice with Chicken, Atadwe Milkye (Tiger Nut Pudding), and Lemongrass Tea. Historical and cultural notes throughout put the cuisine in its broader context.

East African, notably, Ethiopian, cuisine is perhaps the most well-known in the States. This volume illuminates West, southern, and Central African cuisine as well to give students and other readers a solid understanding of how the diverse African peoples grow, cook, and eat food and how they celebrate special occasions and ceremonies with special foods. Readers will also learn about African history, religions, and ways of life plus how African and American foodways are related. For example, cooking techniques such as deep frying and ingredients such as peanuts, chili peppers, okra, watermelon, and even cola were introduced to the United States by sub-Sahara Africans who were brought as slaves. Africa is often presented as a monolith, but this volume treats each region in turn with representative groups and foodways presented in manageable fashion, with a truer picture able to emerge. It is noted that the boundaries of many countries are imposed, so that food culture is more fluid in a region. Commonalities are also presented in the basic format of a meal, with a starch with a sauce or stew and vegetables and perhaps some protein, typically cooked over a fire in a pot supported by three stones. Representative recipes, a timeline, glossary, and evocative photos complete the narrative.

One of the best ways to teach children about an ethnic culture is to introduce them to its cooking. A Good Soup Attracts Chairs bridges cultures on each side of the Atlantic through the ethnic cooking of the African nation of Ghana. A Good Soup Attracts Chairs is a complete recipe for cultural understanding. Through easy-to-supervise recipes and projects, lunch groups, slumber parties, scout troops, classrooms, or families can build a special relationship with the children of another continent.