Dish
Ndolé
How it's prepared
Ndole (Cameroonian Bitter Leaf and Peanut Soup)
Ndole is a popular traditional soup recipe in Cameroon that is made with the combination of spinach and bitter leaves as well as crayfish, shrimp, and beef. It is also a recipe for ceremony.
Ingredients
- ½ pound stew beef, diced
- Salt
- 2 tablespoons maggi (stock cube)
- 3 large onion, sliced
- ½ pound stockfish (optional)
- 2 cups shelled and peeled peanuts
- 4–5 cloves garlic
- ¾ cup ground crayfish
- 1 pound bitter leaves or spinach
- 2–3 cups oil
- ½ pound shrimp
Method
- Season the beef in a big pot with salt, maggi, and one-third of the onions, then boil until the meat is soft.
- In the meantime, boil the stockfish with salt and water, then add it to the cooked beef. From the meat and stockfish you should get roughly 3 cups. Freeze or reserve the remainder.
- In a saucepan, boil the peanuts for around 10 minutes. Let it cool before pulsing or mixing it in a blender. Add to the meat and stockfish mixture.
- Grind half the remaining onion and garlic to a paste, then stir into the meat and peanut mixture.
- Add the crayfish, then boil it for 10 minutes, stirring often to avoid burning. Season with salt and maggi to taste. Later, you might need to add more.
- Add spinach or bitter leaves to the soup. Stir and continue to simmer for few minutes.
- Heat the oil in a frying pan while the ndole is simmering. Add the shrimp and stir continuously until they start to turn pink. Add all the remaining onions and stir again for a few more minutes.
- Add the shrimp and onion mixture to the soup pot, and stir continuously for about 2 minutes
- Serve hot.
From Wikipedia
Ndolé, also written Ndole or Ndolè, is a Cameroonian dish consisting of stewed ground peanuts, crayfish, garlic, onions, and ndoleh leaves (indigenous to West and Central Africa). The dish originated in Douala, in the Littoral Region of Cameroon. Ndolé is widely regarded as the national dish of Cameroon.
Ndolé is typically cooked with fish or beef, and in some variations, may contain shrimp, in which case the dish is described as "regal". The dish is traditionally accompanied by fried or boiled plantains, as well as bobolo or miondo, which are Cameroonian delicacies made of fermented ground manioc steamed in Marantaceae leaves and commonly formed into spiral shapes before serving.
Preparation
Ndolé is sometimes compared to spinach because of its green color and leafy texture, despite having different cooking methods. The dish is considered labor-intensive and time-consuming to prepare, although its ingredients are generally affordable.
The preparation of the dish involves boiling the ndoleh leaves two to three times in salted water with rock salt to reduce their natural bitterness. The leaves are then incorporated into a cooked sauce made from freshly ground peanut paste and crushed spices. Cooked meat cut into pieces, smoked fish (such as cod), or fresh or smoked shrimp may be added to the mixture. Among some Cameroonian immigrant communities abroad, it may be accompanied by Asian rice; however, rice is not traditionally considered the standard accompaniment, as it has not historically been a staple food in Cameroon.
This record is provisional: it was compiled from the cited sources but has not yet been checked by an InsideKamer editor.
Sources
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