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. |
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