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- Cuisine: African
Bathie Dia, of Shield and Spear, talks about Cameroonian cuisine.
How has your heritage influenced your cooking?
African heritage is the great source of my cooking, as it’s given me the tools to understand and interpret contemporary cuisine with a different approach.
Why is this representative of Cameroonian food and cuisine?
N’dole is served in the home almost every day, in all restaurants with grilled cassava, plantains, rice or plain fish. It is the food of the Cameroonian people.
How closely will you be following the World Cup?
Even with my busy schedule I will be following closely; particularly the games of Australia, Ghana, Cameroon and South Africa.
Is food or football more important to the people of Cameroon?
For West African people, food is the priority for their day-to-day survival, and football is secondary to most.
If you could cook a meal for one of your football heroes, past or present, who would it be and why?
Difficult to choose a favourite star in the night sky, I love them all. But with no hesitation, I would like to cook for Diego Maradona, just to give back some of the joy that ‘the Mozart of football’ has given me.
This National dish of Cameroon had its origins on the Atlantic Coast and with the Douale people. It’s name, N’Dole, means Bitterleaf. The bitterleaf can be substituted with betel, kale or spinach. It is a dish widely eaten everyday as well as on special occasions, such as marriages or baptisms. This delicious dish, consisting of a stew with raw nuts, bitterleaves, dried shrimp, smoked fish and fresh meat can be a strange combination for a non-African.
This interview is part of a series on chefs representing each of the countries in the 2010 FIFA World
Ingredients
1 blue eyed tail-about 1.4kg2 mud crabs, cleaned and chopped
1 onion roughly chopped
2 cloves garlic
4 tomatoes cut into wedges
2 bay leaves
2 1⁄2 cups crab broth
Thai fish sauce to taste
1⁄4 cup raw peanuts shelled, skinned and chopped
1⁄2 cup coconut milk
1 bunch of wild betel leaves
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp minced ginger
2 tsp minced garlic
1⁄2 tsp hot chili, seeded and minced
Preparation
Place the crab on a plate and into a double boiler over boiling water, cover and steam for about 15 minutes. When cool, take away the meat from the shell.To make the crab broth, with a little oil sauté the crab shells and onion, then add garlic, tomatoes, and bay leaves, cover with water and simmer for 45 minutes before straining the broth.
Whilst simmering the broth, add the peanuts then blend together. Add the coconut milk then cook gently for about 30 minutes. Add the betel leaves then, with a hand blender, process the mixture until smooth. Season with Thai fish sauce, continue to simmer for a few minutes then remove from the heat and add olive oil, stir in the brown crab meat and serve in a bowl garnished with the white crab meat.
Rub the Blue eye cod tails with 1 tsp minced ginger, 2 tsp minced garlic, 1⁄2 tsp hot chili seeded and minced, 1 tbsp olive oil -season with salt and pepper to taste. Place on a double boiler and steam for 25 minutes or until thoroughly cooked.
NOTE:
A wide variety of nuts can be used to make the N’dole, such as sesame, almonds or pistachios. Bitterleaf adds a distinctive flavour to the dish. In Australia a good substitute is “Kaduk” also known as wild betel leaves. Plantain can be cooked at any stage of ripeness - very ripe fruit can be eaten raw or used in salad.
ACCOMPANIMENTS:
Fufu de Paris
Rinse well11⁄2 cups basmati rice, combine with a 1⁄2 cup of sago and 2 1⁄2 cups water, allow to soak for about 6 hours. With a hand blender, puree the mixture into a very fine paste. Add 1⁄2 cup yoghurt and stir in 1⁄2 cup of plain flour and continue to blend until very smooth (pancake batter consistency). Pour into a greased tin cover with cling wrap and steam until set (about 15 mins). Place the Fufu on a hard surface and knead it until smooth and then shape into serving sizes.
Plantain
Peel and cut the plantain into slices and save 1 green plantain for julienne garnish. Deep-fry the green plantain slices and julienne garnish separately until golden brown and crispy, and then drain on a paper towel.
Dodo salad
Into a bowl mix deep-fried plantain, plus ripe sliced plantain and 1 diced tomato, 1 minced garlic clove, 1 sliced green shallot, 2 tbsp olive oil and half juice of a lime. Season with salt and pepper.
Wild rosella flower drink
Place 1⁄2 cup dried Rosella, 1⁄2 bunch chocolate mint and 15grams of freshly grated ginger finely sliced into a jar. Pour in 2 and a 1⁄2 cup of boiling water, cover and set aside for 1 hour. Add sugar to taste and pour into a glass with ice cubes.
If you enjoyed this Cameroon: N'Dole recipe then browse more African recipes, seafood recipes, entertaining recipes and our most popular hainanese chicken rice recipe.
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