Cooking Cameroon Style
on The Road Less Travelled (Cameroon), 01/Feb/2010 10:10, 34 days ago
On Sunday I had the unique opportunity to learn how to cook two typical dishes from this area called Follere and couscous. Follere is named after the vegetable which is it’s key ingredient. It is a leafy green which smells like fresh cut grass. Couscous is not the northern African couscous but it is made with flour (corn, or millet, or wheat) and has the consistency of playdough.We started our activities on Saturday acually by going to buy the millet we would use for the couscous.  We bought it from a sweet old lady and then we had it skinned and then before grinding it we had to wash it and dry it.Woman and millet              De-skinning milletCaroline had organized the day but sadly she was feeling under the weather so she spent most of the morning/afternoon laying on the couch. Our friend, who we met through my secretary Danedjo, had offered to come over to teach us. Her name is Mairamou, and she is also a member of APAD (l’Association pour la Promotion de l'Autonomie et des Droits de la Fille/Femme).The activity started at 9am for me when I went to the market to get fresh meat. Mairamou wanted us to make it with dried fish but being somewhat picky eaters Caroline and I decided our first time should be with something more familiar. I bought filet I then headed over to Caroline’s and we sautéed it a bit. When Mairamou arrived a bit after 10am bringing a ‘marmite’ (a large pot), a couscous stirring stick, and some millet flour (we had bought the millet on Saturday and Mairamou took it home to wash and get ground into flour). Mairamou and I headed back out to the market to pick up the follere and some peanut paste.Follere Leaves                       Removing Follere LeavesBy 11am we were back and starting the preparations. We started by sitting the flour out in the fun to ensure it was dry. We then started de-leafing the stems of follere and put all the leaves on a large platter which we then cut into thin slices. We put a pot on the gas range and Mairamou told me to put in some oil. I put in a bit of oil, maybe 4 table spoons, she looked and said that was not enough and she added about a cup. We then threw in some onions and tomatoes and the meat and garlic. While that cooked we finished getting the leaves ready and washed then. We then  threw the leaves into the pot as well. We let it simmer for a long time sporadically adding in bouillon cubes, and the peanut paste. The bouillon cubes are called Maggi cubes and people here put them in everything, essentially they are MSG and salt. You can see ads everywhere around the town advertising Maggi cubes because as they inform you“every women can be a star if she cooks with Maggi”.Sauce at the beginning        Sauce once follere addedThroughout this process Caroline was feeling pretty sick and was passed out on the couch for the vast majority of the time.We made the couscous by boiling water and then adding the flour and mixing it with the big stick. It was pretty sticky and doughy. And Mairamou had to sit on the flour with the bowl between her feet to be able to stir it with the stick.The follere turned out alright. The meat was quite tender and the consistency was nice (kind of like a spinach sauce. But the bottom of the pot has burnt a bit so there was a scent of burnt flavour and a lot of oil. The couscous is quite heavy and sits in your stomach like a brick. It tastes quite bland. At this point Caroline was slightly more alert as I had given her some gravol however she didn’t manage to eat much of anything other than a couple mouthfuls of the couscous.Overall it was a fun experience but I am still not a huge fan of Cameroonian food. I like less oil and perhaps less playdough consistency for my side dishes.Finished Product                                               Eaten