Photo: Dylan Rodgers
By: Dylan Rodgers
Today for Seeing Red, I spoke with Chef Maame Boakye from Red Rooster, a member of the Ashanti tribe from Ghana. She has shared her story, and she explains how her culinary pursuits parallel the fine art of sculpting. Maame has also been so gracious as to share her favorite recipe, one that has deep roots in her African heritage.
What brought you into cooking?
Well, when I was a kid, my parents came up here very early. So I was back home and was left with my uncle and four brothers. So it was left to me to make sure, since I was 11 years old, to make sure there was food. My uncle would teach me, so I started picking it up. I came here [the US] when I was 13 and met my parents.
My mom cooked every day. It’s a habit I had to pick up. My dad has to have something different every day. A home-cooked meal every night and the table had to be set. That’s just how they do their thing, and you know, I picked it up; I started learning from her. I went to school up-state, and it didn’t work out too well.
What had you studied before?
I was going to school for psychology.
Really?
Haha! Yeah. So I thought, No, maybe this is not for me. I decided I would give [culinary school] a try. I came home, and went to the Art Institute (AI) for an interview and I liked it. I said, “What was I thinking this whole time. This is so my thing.”
Because you learned to cook in a family setting, what is your favorite family dish?
It’s a dish called Kontomire, which is a spinach stew. But originally it wasn’t made with spinach. Spinach is used because we can’t get the greens that we used back home, the leaves of the cocoyam. Cocoyam is similar to yuca, but the greens are very big.
The reason I like Kontomire is because it is such a healthy dish, because the greens are so dark. That dish has palm oil and egusi seeds. Egusi is like a type of watermelon except the actual meat is not edible, but the seeds are similar to pumpkin seeds. They have a lot of protein.
People don’t think about how healthy that one dish is, because you could eat it with so many things. It’s a stew so you can eat with rice; you can eat it with yams, with Gari (dried yuca), or Kenkey (cornmeal), or plantain. You can eat it with anything.
So were you always so health conscious?
No. Not really. I became health conscious because most of my brothers became doctors. So they started changing a bunch of things in the house saying, “You can’t have this in the house; you can’t have that.” Even with the palm oil in Kontomire, they’re against it. I like it, but they’re against it, because apparently palm oil helps cause high cholesterol. It just wouldn’t taste the same without it though.
What do you love to do when you’re not cooking?
When I’m home (and it has to do with food too), I like to do fruit carving. I taught myself how to carve fruit. We actually did an event recently where I carved a rooster called the “Green Rooster”, because I used a honeydew melon. I get so nervous because one little mistake and you’ve ruined the whole thing.
I also work with gum paste. I make gum paste flowers and gum paste characters. I even made a Sponge Bob theme cake for my godson.
Photo: Teddy Bonsu
Kontomire (Cocoyam leaf) Stew Recipe
by Maame Boakye
Ingredients:
2lb Kontomire Chiffonade (substitute with spinach if not available)
1 large Red Onion thinly sliced
3 large ripped tomatoes medium diced
2 cloves of garlic minced
½ teaspoon of ginger minced
½ teaspoon of scotch bonnet Pepper chopped
½ teaspoon of Allepo pepper
½ teaspoon of curry powder
½ teaspoon smoked paprika
12oz Palm Oil
½ cup dried Egusi (Melon) seeds grounded ( sub with pumpkin seeds in not available)
3 large scale of and deboned Tinapa (smoked fish)
Salt to taste
Method:
- In a pot, heat half of your palm oil. Sweat your onion, garlic and ginger. On the side mix the 1/2 cup egusi with 1 cup water and let sit.
- Add your diced tomatoes and scotch bonnet. Simmer until the tomatoes are tender. Season them with the curry, paprika, and Allepo pepper.
- Add the tinapa and egusi mix. Let simmer for 5 min.
- Mix in the Kontomire and season with salt, and add the remaining palm oil. Let it simmer on low heat for 20 minutes stirring occasionally.
- Serve with boiled yam, white rice, Kenkey, boiled green plantain.
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