Ndolé
Cameroon’s national dish, from the Duala people: bitter ndolé leaves stewed with a peanut cream, meat and prawns. It’s served with fried plantain or cassava sticks.
Ingredients
- 400 g ndolé leaves (frozen, from African grocers) or spinach with a handful of rocket
- 300 g raw shelled peanuts
- 500 g diced beef
- 300 g peeled prawns
- 2 onions
- 3 garlic cloves
- 1 piece of ginger
- 100 ml oil
- Salt and a chilli
How to make it at home
- Simmer the beef with an onion, salt and water for 45 minutes and keep the stock.
- Boil the peanuts for 20 minutes, drain and blend them with a little stock into a cream.
- If you’re using ndolé, wash it several times in hot salted water to remove some of the bitterness; if it’s spinach, blanch it for a minute.
- Fry the other onion with the garlic and ginger in the oil, add the peanut cream and a glass of stock and cook for 15 minutes, stirring.
- Add the meat and the chopped leaves and cook for 15 minutes more.
- Add the prawns for the last 5 minutes, check the salt and serve with fried plantain.
The trick: In Cameroon it’s finished with a drizzle of hot oil and fried onion on top.