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Grasscutter Stew

Grasscutter Stew is a traditional Ghanaian recipe (from Ghana) for a classic stew of grasscutter (greater cane rat) in a ginger and chilli base with the cane rat's stomach contents and an onion, tomato, garden egg and chilli flavouring. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic Ghanaian Fusion version of: Grasscutter Stew.

prep time

20 minutes

cook time

130 minutes

Total Time:

150 minutes

Serves:

6–8

Rating:

Tags : Chilli RecipesSpice RecipesGame RecipesVegetable RecipesGhana Recipes

The cane rat is one of Africa's largest rodents. It is an agricultural pest and is hunted for bush meat. Recently there have been efforts to farm it as mini livestock, particularly in Ghana and Nigeria.

OK, this is a bizarre recipe I know. You need whole cane rats that have not been skinned or gutted. Skin and gut them but preserve the stomachs. Cane rats, eat greens and the pre-digested greens in the stomach provide more minerals than raw greens would.

Ingredients:

2 cane rats (grasscutters), divided into serving portions
3cm length of fresh ginger, grated
2 large shallots, finely chopped
salt, to taste
4 large, ripe tomatoes, whole
2 whole onions
8 garden eggs (egg-shaped green eggplants)
6 whole Scotch bonnet chillies, stems removed
200g button mushrooms, halved

Method:

Wash the grasscutter meat and place in a large saucepan with the ginger and shallots. Add a little salt to taste and about 300ml water. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer, cover and set aside to cook.

In the meantime, take the reserved grasscutter stomachs and extract the contents into a bowl. Add about 500ml warm water and stir the ingredients with your hand. Strain this mixture through a fine-meshed strainer and add the green-coloured liquid to the pan with the grasscutter meats. Add in the tomatoes, onions, garden eggs and chillies.

Bring back to a simmer, cover and cook for about 60 minutes or until all the ingredients are tender. Remove the tomatoes, onions, chillies and garden eggs. Pound in a mortar then return the resultant paste to the pot. Add the mushrooms, re-cover the pot and cook for 60 minutes more.

Serve hot, accompanied by rice.