For the past 10 years, Selorm Agudu, Chief Farmer at Urban Jungle Agro Limited, has led a team of some 30 skilled individuals to build a fresh food production, aggregation and distribution enterprise targeted at the local market.
Their clients range from the high-end industrial processing houses down to individual homes, with a 5000sqm greenhouse in Konkonuru, Eastern Region and a 6-hectare open field operation in Tafi-Atome in the Volta Region. All proof points for profitable, sustainable, high yield, affordable and healthy fresh food production that Urban Jungle preaches and teaches.
But when Farmer Selorm found himself as a panelist on week two of the Gastro Feastival ‘Table of 8’ – “The Food Conversations: From Farm to Feast” weekly podcast series, focused on yam, he discovered that yam – the commonplace but abundant indigenous tuber he knows – can be so much more than just another regular staple.
From exquisite cocktails to such desserts as ice cream, Selorm became just as stunned as his fellow panelists to discover how yam’s versatility ranges from enticing beverages to cuisine that are a sheer culinary delight.
“I walked away from that hour of discussion totally intrigued at how much more yam can be of use to us. I never thought of yam as having such huge potential in culinary terms; and after seeing what I saw on the show, I’m compelled to look at every other traditional food we have in this country in different ways and reimagine them with different possibilities,” Farmer Agudu intimated.
By general consensus, each of panelists concurred that the “Yamarita” cocktail they tasted, one specially created by mixologists from Front/Back Bar, was quite mind-blowing. Everybody absolutely loved it!
On the main menu this week was a delectable plate of cheesy yam croquettes with a spicy nunum yoghurt dip and an entrée of roasted cubes of yam and sweet potatoes served with grilled dawadawa chicken steak on a bed of ntroba abomu in PJ’s piquant kobi relish.
It was by far the dessert that got everyone most animated, however. It turns out there’s a recipe for making yam into ice cream, and in collaboration with Chefquamz, yours truly cracked it, and presented a version of it with shavings of Bioko Treats prekese infused chocolate!
The podcast series’ moderator, Enyonam Manye (The Ghanaian Farmer), couldn’t even find the right words to describe the revelations of the day. As for Ms. Esther Kyerewaa Twumasi of Kosmos Innovation Centre, she was just balled over by the spice and cheese filled croquettes.
Both Kojo Aidoo of Front/Back and the Accra Bar Show and Ms. Charity Adupong of Meannan Foods were quite amazed by the innovative menu, as the other panelists – including Mr. Eric Kofi Afornorpe, the current Acting Director of Hotel, Catering and Tourism Training Institute (HOTCATT), who was very visibly thrilled for the new discovery although he said he had tasted yam made into many various dishes at the Asogli and other yam festivals.
Mrs. Theresa Ayoade, CEO of events production firm Charterhouse and Convener of the Gastro Feastival, said the festival – which comes off during Farmers’ Day weekend of December 5/6 – “aims to challenge perceptions about our local produce and promote value addition within Ghana’s food and agribusiness sectors.”
Converging gastronomes, entrepreneurs, farmers, chef and policy-makers to ignite engaging discourse, the “Table of 8” conversations are recorded at PaJohn’s, yours truly’s, rooftop kitchen terrace where the alchemy of the cuisine takes place. As host, I complete the panel list.
“For me,” says Farmer Selorm, “the opportunity being created by the Gastro Feastival ‘Table Of 8’ is a great ‘conversation’ that is going to help us figure out innovative ways of utilising and presenting our traditional foods.”
The post PJ Vibes: “The conversation that has me looking at yam in a completely untraditional way” – Urban Jungle CEO appeared first on The Business & Financial Times.
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