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Ghana is one of the most fertile and productive of West African countries. It is also the inheritor nation of the Ga and Ashanti poeples, ancient rulers of West Africa. The cuisines of Ghana are diverse and characterized by he use of chillies, native spices and boiled eggs in the cooking. Here you will find two typical Ghanaian recipes.

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'Thai Food' by David Thompson is one of those rare 'must have' culinary books that presents the culture and history of Thailan from a food perspective. This well-written book presents over 300 recipes covering all aspects of Thai cuisine and represents the most comprehensive collection and examination of Thai Food printed in the English Language.

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Hazelnuts are an important part of the Autumn's bounty and humans have been collecting and harvesting them for many thousands of years. Today, however, we tend to use them only as nuts and do not cook with them. To re-dress the balance, here is an introduction to hazelnuts along with some hazelnut-based recipes for you to try at home.

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West African cuisine is all based around making the most of all the ingredients available. This is a hearty, cheap and quite spicy stew that makes use those parts of the animal that we in the West tend to ignore - hearts and livers. The dish is very tasty and makes a wonderful accompaniment to rice. It's very cheap to prepare and extremely healthy for you.

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When spring comes around nature begins to offer her bounty of wild flowers and wild greens for your table. Many of these are both edible and good to use. Here you will find two recipes that help you make the most of this natural spring-time bounty...

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The Romans were the first peoples to formally add a dessert course at the end of a meal. Here you will learn a little about why we like sweet desserts and why they all, in one way or another, echo the fruit our ancestors used to eat. You will also see two recipes for classic fruit-based desserts.

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Those obsessive about wild foods will source a whole meal from the wild. But this is not the way that it's best to start with or even to keep going with wild foods. It's far better to gather a few fruit, wild greens or mushrooms and to add these to your everyday cookery. This way you get an introduction to the range of wild foods available and you begin to extend your cookery by adding wild ingredients.

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The recipe here for moy-moy with pepper soup gives a vegetarian version of the classic West African 'pepper soup' (chilli-based stew). The moy-moy (or steamed black-eyed bean cakes) represent a Nigerian classic that's typically steamed in banana or plantain leaves. I've adapted the recipe to make them more muffin-like (which is better in terms of providing a substantial vegetarian meal).

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Chocolate is perhaps the most indulgent ingredient to emerge from the Americas. It was once considered a royal drink and prepared especially for the ruling elite. Chocolate itself is made from the cocoa bean and as such is actually, technically, a spice. It's hardly surprising that this magical substance has inspired a host of memorable quotations...

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Pastry is one of the most basic components of cooking, needed for pies, tarts and cake bases of many types. It originates in the ancient method of applying a paste of flour and water to baked meats to protect them in the fire. But, in the Middle Ages fats were added and modern pastry was born. Learn a little about the different pastry types and see a recipe for a traditional classic flaky pastry.