Ghanaian

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Red Red (Bean Stew with Fried Ripe Plantain)

An everyday Ghanaian dish: black-eyed beans stewed with red palm oil and tomato, served with fried ripe plantain. Two red things in it, hence the name. The technique is all on the plantain side. A ripe plantain has already turned most of its starch to sugar, so fried like a potato it burns outside before the middle is done. Keep the oil low and wait until the skins go black.

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Fufu (Pounded Cassava and Plantain with Light Soup)

Ghana's staple: cassava and unripe plantain boiled and then pounded into a smooth, elastic dough. There is no flour and so no gluten — that stretch comes from gelatinised starch plus the sheer mechanical work of pounding. It is food you dip in soup and swallow rather than chew, which is why the soup is not a side dish here.

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Waakye (Rice and Beans Cooked with Sorghum Leaves)

Ghana's national breakfast: rice and black-eyed peas cooked together in the red liquor drawn from dried sorghum leaves, which give both the colour and a faint earthy note. The colour is not a dye, and half the dish is what goes on top of it.