Oh Fanny!!!

I'm watching Oprah, I feel it's necessary right here and now to state that I'm not a fan of the show. It's boring and stupid and boring most importantly. It's basically Oprah talking to middle aged housewives who hang on her every word, thus spending the duration of the show oohing and ahhing and clapping like puppets. It's gross, repetitive and monotonous. Unfortunately I don't have control of the remote. She's interviewing Martha Stewart pre prison sentence (we get lots of re-runs) and that got me thinking about the home cook goddesses we have in England: Nigella Lawson; who oozes sex, Delia Smith Queen of Patronisation; she actually did a show about how to boil an egg and the original Fanny Cradock. Now she was something.

We get to watch her shows around the Christmas holiday because of  the nostalgia, the first of her kind. She had those old school eyebrows drawn in after shaving her original ones off, giving them a manufactured hooked shape. And then there was her roller set overnight pale blonde (sometimes reddish brown) hair framing her powder pale face. She spoke the Queen's English. She was definitely a lady of her time. She was no nonsense. She was spectacular but I wouldn't recreate any of her recipes.

The first time I watched her show I was taken aback, she did this segment because apparently no one in England during the 1970's could carve their chicken properly at Christmas and she was on a mission to fix that. It scared the shit out of me, not enough to make me hate chicken (nothing could do that) but... maybe I was more grossed out than scared. Watching it again I think my reaction was due to the insipid, anaemic appearance of the chicken.

This Christmas: Eve

This meal is important to me, not because it's Christmas Eve but because I haven't had it in a while. A Ghanaian classic of Waatse (pronounced Waatche), which is similar to the West Indian Rice and Peas, but we use black eyed beans instead. In Ghana it's eaten mid-morning because no one wants to be farting late into the night, lol. It's an unusual breakfast item but that's what happens when you live in a hot country. There's always and excess of chilli and salt, just the way I like it.

I remember my older sister used to buy it for breakfast when we lived in Ghana. It came packaged in a Banana leaf with extra Shito (not sure if I spelt that correctly ;0), because she loved the stuff. To her Shito is like Ketchup, lol.

Shito is made out of prawns generally, but Sprats today because that's what my mother could get her hands on. Any seafood would do basically. dried chilli peppers, oil (lots), onions, some salt or a Magi cube (I think it's made out of prawns compressed into a small concentrated bar). It is stewed until it turns black et voila, you have Shito, it's a peppery hot condiment. I can't eat too much of it personally, because I'm a light weight when it comes to peppery hot stuff. I'd rather have chilli in my food than not though. I always find myself nauseous when its not there.

My mum also fried some Sprats (those tiny fish that you can eat whole) and prawns. Apparently, in Ghana they eat shell and all. My memories of the motherland aren't as clear as the used to be. It has something to do with the benefits of the calcium… OK, that’s a lie. But it could be true.

Along with that you get some tomato sauce, and Gari which is Cassava I think. It's shredded then dry fried, I think my mum mixed it with some of the oil from the Shito. The thing about Gari is that it's rock hard, so whatever your going to eat it with you need to dampen it a bit. All that's left is the egg, which I don't quite understand the reason for, but who cares. It's delicious. Well, that was my Christmas Eve feast.

P.S. I hate Blogger's picture uploading system.