Turns Out To Be Cooking Spice

The plane arrived on time. But the passengers had to wait awhile before they could claim their bags. The reason? Something fishy in the cargo hold.

Baggage handlers at Hopkins International found a suspicious white powder leaking from suitcases in the luggage compartment.

Passengers on board the aircraft, which flew in from Africa, were held while the DEA and a HAZMAT team checked the powder. They found 70 pounds of it in the hold.

So what was it? Turns out the white powder was gari -- a cooking spice common in Ghana. A family returning to the US from there had brought the spice with them and one of their packages sprung a leak.

Aero-Recipe: Fried Smoked Fish With Gari

Ingredients:

• 1 pound (500 g) smoked herring or mackerel salt 3 tablspoons peeled and finely grated ginger
• 1/2 cup vegetable or peanut oil 2 yellow onions, minced 4 ripe tomatoes, blanched, peeled, and pureed
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste blened with 1/4 cup water 2 fresh red chiles, minced 1/2 pound (250 g) green beans, chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic salt 2 cups gari  

Steps

Season the fish with salt and ginger. Heat the oil in a heavy-based pan, and saute the fish until crisp and brown. Remove from the oil, drain, set aside, and keep hot.

In the remaining hot oil, add the onions and saute until they are almost brown. Add the tomatoes, tomato paste, chiles, green beans, and garlic salt. Return the fish to the pan, cover, and simmer for 10 to 15 minutes, or until the sauce thickens.

Put the gari (above, right) in a bowl and add enough lightly salted cold water just to corer it completely. Let stand for 10 minutes, or until the gari absorbs the liquid and swells. Fluff the gari with a fork. Accompany each serving of fried fish with some of the vegetables and gari. Don't take on plane.

FMI: www.clevelandairport.com