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Course Sauce
Cuisine Ghanaian
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour 15 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 30 minutes

Ingredients

Mushroom Broth Base

  • 3 large king oyster mushrooms
  • 1 small pack of oyster mushrooms
  • a handful of dried shiitake mushrooms
  • 1 vegetable bouillon cube
  • 1/2 tsp black pepper
  • 1/2 tsp anise seeds
  • 1 clove garlic
  • 1 figernail sized ginger
  • 1 shallot finely chopped
  • 1.5 cup water

Tomato Stew Base

  • 5 tomatoes
  • 1 red bell pepper
  • 3 medium onions 1 finely chopped, 2 roughly chopped
  • 1 large thumb size ginger
  • 3 cloves of garlic
  • 1-2 scotch bonnet pepper
  • 1 can of tomato paste 156ml can
  • 1 tbsp of ghanaian all purpose seasoning check notes for substitutions
  • 1 tbsp of all purpose seaoning check notes for substitutions
  • 1 block of extra firm tofu cut into cubes
  • 1 cup vegetable oil
  • a pinch baking soda optional -- only useful if tomatoes are sour

Instructions

Prepare the tomato sauce

  • In a blender, blend the tomatoes and bell pepper
  • Pour the mixture in a pot, cover it and let it boil at medium heat for about 30 minutes. You can add a pinch of baking soda if your tomatoes are not in season and are sour. We are giving the tomato sauce a head start to cook so that by the time we are ready to add fresh tomatoes to the stew, it has reduced in water volume.

Make the mushroom broth

  • Next, grind the onion, garlic, ginger, and spices portioned for the broth in a food processor or mortar and pestle. (Please read notes if you do not have a mortar and pestle or food processor)
  • In a pot at medium heat, add the king oyster and dried shiitake mushrooms with the water and let the water come to a boil
  • Add in the vegetable bouillon cube as well as the grinded aromatic spices mixture
  • Bring the broth to a boil and let it cook for about 10 minutes.
  • After, add in your oyster mushrooms and let everything simmer at medium low heat till the dried mushrooms have fully hydrated. This should take another 5-10 mins. Once the mushrooms have softened, remove the mushrooms from the broth and squeeze out any excess broth from the mushrooms to get as much mushroom broth out of the mushrooms as possible. This is important for the frying of the mushrooms.

Cooking the stew

  • In a pot, heat up the oil till warm then fry your mushrooms till crispy. The mushrooms will crisp up faster if all the broth has been squeezed out. Remove the fried mushrooms and set aside.
  • Next, fry your tofu till crispy then set aside.
  • After, add in your finely chopped onions. Allow the onions to fry till they turn brown then remove the onion from the pot and place in a blender with the roughly chopped onion, ginger, garlic cloves and scotch bonnet pepper portioned for the stew.
  • Blend everything together then return it back to the oil.
  • Let the onion mixture fry for about 5-10 minutes then add in your tomato paste.
  • Mix the tomato paste well and let it cook for another 5 minutes. This gets out the can taste.
  • At this point, our tomato sauce from earlier has significantly reduced in size so we will be incorporating it into the tomato paste onion mixture. Mix everything well and let it cook at medium low heat for about 10 -15 minutes.
  • Next, pour in your mushroom broth and spice blends and mix well. Then add in your fried mushrooms and fried tofu and mix well.
  • Let everything cook for another 10 minutes or till the oil starts to separate to the top of the stew. The oil separation signifies that the tomatoes have fully broken down and the oil has reached its boiling point, which is a good indication that the stew is ready.
  • Serve with waakye or rice

Notes

*If you do not have a food processor or mortar and pestle, you can blend the ginger, onion, garlic and spices with the water portioned for the broth in a regular blender. 
**If you do not want to make the all-purpose seasonings, you can swap for curry powder, garam masala or any all-purpose spice blend of choice. The goal is to ensure that the stew is well seasoned.