This is one of my favourite Ghanaian meals. It is delicious, warming, savoury and guaranteed to be one of your favourite Ghanaian dishes too. It is often made with poultry, stewing hen and smoked turkey but you can definitely make this with other meats like beed, lam, goat etc. The poultry or meat is seasoned, steamed and a tomato and onion based broth is added to this and of course a peanut butter (groundnut mixture). The soup is simmered till the oil and fat from the meat and peanut butter settle on top and it is served with a perfectly rounded ball of white rice.
Omo Tuo and Nkate Nkwan (Rice Balls and Groundnut Soup)
Ingredients
Soup
- 2 pounds chicken cut into pieces (preferably mature chicken or stewing chicken)
- 1 pound smoked turkey cut into pieces
- 2 large tomatoes
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 2 large onions
- 4 inch ginger peeled
- 2 teaspoon anise seed
- 5 garlic cloves
- 3 scotch bonnet peppers or to taste
- Additional 2 scotch bonnet for garnish
- Water as needed
- 11/2 cups peanut butter
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Optional Additions: Boiled okra Oyster and brown button mushrooms
Rice balls
- 2 cups rice long grain white rice jasmine
- 3 ½ cups water
- 1 teaspoon salt
Instructions
To Make Soup
- Season chicken generously with salt and season with black pepper to taste. Set aside for about 30 minutes.
- Set aside your smoked turkey.
- Blend 1 large onion, 3 garlic cloves, ginger and 2 scotch bonnets. Add at most about ⅓ cup of water when blending to help smoothen out the mixture. Set aside.
- In a very large pot, add your chicken and smoked turkey and immediately pour over your onion, garlic, ginger and pepper mixture and add your anise seed.
- Mix well so chicken and turkey are coated, cover chicken and turkey and let it steam for about 30 minutes until chicken is cooked. Your smoked turkey is already cooked.
- In a separate pot, add 2 tomatoes, 1 onion, 2 garlic cloves and 1 scotch bonnet pepper. Pour over water and boil for about 30 minutes until tender.
- When your tomato and onions are soft, let cool slightly before blending into a smooth puree.
- Sieve this tomato mixture over your steamed chicken and turkey to remove pulp. Simmer on low while you prepare peanut mixture.
- Add the peanut butter, tomato paste and about 1 cup of water to the blender and blend until smooth.
- Pour your peanut mixture in a saucepan and mix on low-medium heat until it is smooth and thickened slightly. Add more water if it thickens too much. It may start to bubble so it is important to continuously stir to avoid splatter.
- Pour this over your chicken and cook on low heat for at least 30-40 minutes until the oil has settled on top. While the soup is cooking down, you can add additional whole scotch bonnet to the soup for flavour and a little more heat.
- The oil is from the chicken and the peanut butter. It may start to look foamy on top but this is normal, this is also from the peanut butter can just be mixed into the soup.
- It is advisable to keep a kettle or pot of hot water going while you are cooking the soup so if you need to water down or thin out your soup, you are adding hot water and not room temperature water which slows down cooking.
- Adjust the soup thickness with water if necessary as the soup is simmering and adjust for salt and pepper. You can add additional optional seasoning like paprika, dried herbs but I like to keep things simple.
- Taste and adjust seasoning.
To Make Rice Balls
- Place washed rice, salt and water in a pot and bring to a boil. You want to add just a little more water than is normally required to boil rice. The ratio of rice to water is usually 1:1 1/2. For two cups of rice you would usually add 3 cups of water, but we are adding 3 1/2 cups of water in this recipe. There is more water in this recipe than when making rice normally, this is to make it easier to mash rice together.
- Turn down the heat, cover rice and allow the water to absorb into rice. Do not touch your lid until all the water has been absorbed. This will take anywhere from 15-30 minutes depending on the size of the pot. The rice should also not burn because the heat should be very very low.
- Once all the water is absorbed, remove the lid taste test to make sure the rice is cooked and use a sturdy wooden spoon to mash and knead the rice against the side of your pot.
- Wet a bowl slightly with water and scoop rice into the bowl.
- Shaking the bowl in a circular motion (swirling it around) you will be able to form your rice into a ball. You may use clean hands to help you form into a perfect ball.
- Serve with groundnut soup or wrap in plastic wrap until ready to eat.
- To reheat rice balls you may remove plastic wrap and place in the microwave, alternatively you may place in boiling water with plastic wrap on to reheat, but ensure that water does not penetrate the plastic excessively or this will make the rice soggy.
