Recipes from Cameroon
Banana Bread 

Bananas are a main cash crop for Cameroon, along with cocoa, coffee, palm oil and sugar.

1 ¾ cups flour a cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda 2 eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon baking powder 3 medium ripe bananas mashed
2 tablespoons margarine salt

Preheat oven to 350E. Grease and flour one loaf pan.
Sift the flour together with baking soda and baking powder and a little salt into a bowl.
In a larger bowl, cream the margarine and sugar, then add the beaten eggs a little at a time.
Add flour alternately with mashed bananas; stir well to mix ingredients but do not overstir.
Put mixture into prepared loaf pan. Bake for approximately one hour, or until toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean.
Remove from oven and cool in pan for 15 minutes. Turn out on wire rack to finish cooling.

In Cameroon, as well as in other African countries, a main staple food is the yam. The name "yam" comes from the Fulani people of Cameroon and the Congo, whose word for "eat" is "nyami." African yams are white or pale yellow in color, and not like what we in the United State call yam or sweet potato.

Fried Sweet Potatoes or Plantains (Cameroon and most of the rest of Africa!)

For this recipe, you need 3-4 medium sweet potatoes well-scrubbed or 3-4 plantains. You can usually find plantains in supermarkets in larger cities or in Caribbean or Central American markets. They look like large green bananas.

These fried treats are found for sale as snack foods in markets throughout sub-Saharan Africa.. Usually fried sweet potatoes and plantains are just sprinkled with salt and hot sauce (Tabasco works!), but sometimes they are coated with powdered ginger and/or cayenne before frying and then salted. If you prefer a sweet taste, you can sprinkle them with sugar and cinnamon.

Use either peanut, soybean or safflower oil to deep-fry, as they have a high smoking temperature. If you have a cooking thermometer, keep the oil around 350E. Heat the oil in a heavy saucepan. Slice the sweet potatoes or peeled plantains into ¼-inch rounds. Fry the slices a few at a time until they are golden and crisp on the outside but still soft on the inside. If fried too long, the inside will toughen, so try a couple to get the best timing. Remove them from the oil with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels or newspaper.

 

Zom (Spinach with meat) Serves 6-8
2 pounds stew beef, cut into small cubes 
water
4 tablespoons oil 
1 large onion, chopped 
2 pounds spinach, washed and chopped		 2 tomatoes chopped finely
1 tablespoon tomato paste
2 tablespoons peanut butter
salt and pepper

Put the beef in saucepan with a little salt and enough water to cover. Bring to a boil, covered, and simmer for 1 ½ to 2 hours until the meat is just tender (it will cook more later in recipe). The time will vary depending on the cut of meat and the size of the pieces. Remove the meat and keep the liquid.

Using a large pan, heat the oil and soften the onion. Add the meat pieces and cook for two minutes.

Take 2 cups of the reserved beef broth. Add water if necessary, then pour this in pan with onion and meat. Add spinach, tomatoes, tomato paste, peanut butter, pepper and salt. Bring to a boil and then cover, reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring regularly. Serve with rice.