Name: Kenkey
Prep time: 150 min
Cook time: 240 min
Total time: 390 min
Cuisine: Ghanaian
Ingredients: 8 kilograms dry corn kernels (approximately or 10 kilograms of fermented corn dough); 4 tablespoons sea salt (heaped); corn husks (dry)

Ghanaian

If you have already prepared corn dough, skip to 6.

Soak the corn kernels in water for two days making sure to change the water after day one.

Mill the corn, leave to cool then mix with water to form a dough which when squeezed will not crumble or fall apart easily.

Smoothen the top of the dough and pat. Leave to ferment for 2 days. See note 1

Take one part of the dough and add water. (Approximately 600ml for every kilo of dough.) My dough came to about 3 kilograms to which 2 litres of water were added. See note 2.

Add salt to the dough mixed with water. See notes 3.

Cook the dough until firm. This should take about 30- 45 minutes.

Add about 600 ml of water to the raw dough and mix. Then add the cooked dough to the raw dough and mix until uniform.

Clean the corn husks by taking the husks apart individually and then rinsing them under running water to make sure they are clean and also to soften them.

Take some of the dough and form it into a ball about the size of a large orange.

Wrap the balls with the corn husks making sure they overlap slightly and no gaps are seen.

Once the entire ball of dough is wrapped in the corn husks, hold the top of the corn husks together, twist them and tuck them back into the ball. To do this, once the husks are twisted, make a hole between two of the overlapping corn husks and push the twisted ends inside.

Ensure that there is no gaping hole once you push the twisted corn husks inside the ball. If necessary, squeeze the ball together to close the hole.

Using a large aluminium pot that can hold the balls of kenkey, place some of the corn husks on the bottom and then arrange the balls inside with the twisted-end part facing upward.

Add some hot water to the pot and leave the kenkey to cook until ready. Check periodically to see if there is enough water to cook the kenkey.

Once the kenkey is done, take it out to cool slightly (not cold) and serve.

Kenkey can be eaten with stew, soup, or ground hot pepper and fried fish.

Kenkey

Overview

Cuisine

Tagged with