Banku and Tilapia

Medium·30 min

A whole tilapia marinated in spice paste and charcoal-grilled until smoky and crisp, served beside soft tangy balls of banku and a fiery fresh pepper sauce. It is one of Ghana's most beloved sit-down street meals.

Along the southeastern coast and Lake Volta, fishermen's tilapia meets banku, the fermented corn-and-cassava dumpling that the Ga-Adangme (Ga) coastal people are credited with, at open-air chop bars where the fish grills over coals to order. Eaten by hand with a stinging fresh tomato-and-pepper grind and the savory black pepper sauce called shito, it became a quintessential evening meal shared among friends and is now beloved nationwide.

The tilapia comes off the coals with blistered, smoky skin giving way to sweet white flesh laced with ginger and chili. A pinch of banku, cool and pleasantly sour, tempers the heat, and the raw pepper sauce hits bright and savage, fresh tomato and onion behind a clean blast of scotch bonnet.

Fermentation gives banku its lactic tang and stretchy dough, while charcoal grilling crisps the fish skin and renders fat through smoke, the cool acidic dumpling balancing the chili-laden sauce.

Variations

with banku or kenkey, with grilled or fried tilapia, served with the savory black pepper sauce (shito) and a fresh raw red pepper grind, usually both at once

On the Palate

Where Banku and Tilapia sits in the Ghanaian flavor cloud

Ingredients

Serves 2

How it's made

8 steps · 30 min

1
8 min
Blend onion, ginger, garlic, chili and spices into a marinade paste.
2
7 min
Score a whole cleaned tilapia and rub the paste inside and out, then rest to marinate.
3
5 min
For the banku, mix fermented corn dough and cassava dough with water and salt.
4
15 min
Cook the banku mixture over low heat, stirring constantly until thick, smooth and elastic.
Watch out
Stir the banku nonstop over low heat — the moment it pulls away from the pot in one glossy, stretchy mass with no wet dough left, it's cooked; stop early and it tastes raw and sour.
5
3 min
Shape the cooked banku into smooth balls and keep warm.
6
18 min
Grill the marinated tilapia over hot charcoal, turning, until charred and cooked through.
Watch out
Grill the tilapia until the skin is charred and crisp and it lifts off the grate on its own — if it sticks and tears, the skin hasn't set yet, so give it another minute before turning.
7
6 min
Pound fresh tomato, onion and chili in a mortar into a raw pepper sauce.
8
2 min
Serve the hot fish with banku and the pepper sauce.