A flavourful, onion-laden, and tomato-based stew is the only stew you are going to need for waakye. This waakye stew is a combination of flavours that just take over your palate with the addition of onions, tomatoes, ginger, anise seeds, fish powder, shrimp powder, and other ingredients. The stew is simmered until the beef is tender and the spicy stew has thickened.
This stew is the perfect stew for this waakye recipe, made from black-eyed peas and rice. It is however the kind of stew you can eat with literally anything. It is a great stew that goes with basically goes with anything but also this pink rice, this curry and garlic rice, or just plain boiled rice.
Ingredients
The ingredients for this scrumptious stew are all necessary however what really gives this particular stew an extra oomph are the onions. You will need a lot of them.
The rest of the ingredients are
- tomatoes
- scotch bonnets
- beef
- shrimp powder
- fish powder
- ginger
- cow hide (optional)
- anis seeds
- cloves
- tomato paste
- ginger
- salt
- vegetable oil
A full list of ingredients can be found in the recipe card.
Instructions
To make waakye stew, a mixture of anise seeds, ginger and onions are first blended to steam the beef with. Add the mixture to the meat, add some salt and the cloves and steam gently. Add some water and then further simmer. This will later be the stock to be added to the waakye stew.
While the beef is steaming, the tomatoes are blended with the scotch bonnets and then the onions (separately).
Once the beef is cooked, it is fried and then set aside. To make the stew, tomato paste is first fried in vegetable oil and then ginger paste, blended onions, blended tomatoes, fish powder, and shrimp powder, added in that order.
Substitutions
If you want to switch up this recipe a bit, here are a few substitutions you can make.
- Lamb or Mutton - if you are not a fan of beef, you can easily use mutton or lamb for this stew.
- Herbs and Spices - If you are vegan or vegetarian, you can make a flavourful tomato stew using an assortment of herbs and spices such as black pepper, white pepper, garlic, anise seed, ginger. Thyme in particular is also great herb to use here. The resulting stew will not have the same flavour profile as the authentic stew but is a good option regardless.
Storage
This stew freezes exceptionally well. It is always great to make a big batch, portion, and freeze. I have frozen this stew for 3 months with absolutely no problems.
Waakye Stew Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 kilogram beef
- 3 tablespoons ginger paste heaped
- 1 teaspoon anise seed
- 4 cloves
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste generous
- 7 large onions
- 6 medium fresh tomatoes
- 6 scotch bonnets
- 3 tablespoons shrimp powder heaped
- 4 tablespoons fish powder heaped
- salt to taste
- vegetable oil
Instructions
- Blend 1 whole onion with anise seeds and 1 tablespoon of ginger paste.
- Rinse the beef, add some salt, and steam with the anise seed, ginger paste mix, and the cloves.
- Steam over low heat for about 20 minutes, then adding water (enough to cover the meat) to get some stock.
- Simmer for a further 15 minutes.
- Take the beef out of the stock and fry until golden brown. Set aside
- Blend tomatoes with scotch bonnets and set them aside. Blend onions and set aside.
- In a large pot, add vegetable oil and then add tomato paste, stirring gently for about 3 minutes.
- Add ginger paste, and then onions to the pot and continue stirring for about 5 minutes.
- Pour in the blended tomatoes and leave to simmer for about 5 minutes.
- Add shrimp powder and fish powder.
- Let simmer for 10 minutes and then add stock from the meat.
- Add fried beef and then taste for salt. See notes.
- Let the stew simmer slowly over low heat until the meat is tender and the stew has reduced.
- Serve with waakye, rice, kenkey or boiled yam.
Video
Notes
- The stock and beef have some salt so be careful. Also the stew will reduce further and will become saltier.
Saurel Nguenda-Nkamen says
Hello. I was wondering what exact fish powder and shrimp powder did you use? What the name of the brand? Where do you buy it from?
Edinam says
Hey Saurel, the fish powder and shrimp powder I used were sourced from the local Ghanaian market. The fish powder is made from processing small smoked dried herrings and the same is done for shrimp powder. If you let me know where you live, I may be able to help find a source for you.
Saurel says
Sorry it took so long to respond. I live in Maryland. I see some are sold on Amazons but Im gonna look for the ones that come from Ghana, since you said yours from Ghana.
Edinam says
Awesome! Do let me know once successful.
Britnney says
I'm loving these recipes! As a diasporian of Ghana, and getting married to a Ghanaian gentleman born and raised in Ghana, I am loving your blog to help me appreciate more of my cultural foods that have always been my favourite growing up! I am excited to cook some of your recipes for my husband-to-be !! Your recipes help me so much because I like how you provided the actual measurements for each ingredient as my mother just says "use your eyeball to measure" in her accent haha. So it makes it harder for me to learn to cook the Ghanaian cuisines from her! Anyway, God bless you!
Edinam says
Thank you so much for your kind comment. Your mother is on to something. I generally don’t cook with measurements either. However, I think that to help someone who has never cooked Ghanaian food or who is a total beginner, providing measurements is a great starting point. So what I do is to measure my “eyeballs” for my recipes. Once you have the feel and taste of it, you’re not going to need any measurements at all. Let your tastebuds and sense of smell guide you. All the best! 🙂
Afua says
Hello Edinam, thank you for this delicious recipe. May I ask what specific cut of beef you use? Because when I get to the shop I want to know what to look for. I am not sure which one to can use. Thank you.
Edinam says
Hello there, to be honest I use whatever cut of beef is available. If you go for a shoulder cut or ribs then you will get a juicier cut. Because the fried meat is simmering in the stew, it is unlikely that whatever cut of meat you have is going to be tough. Let me know if this helps.