Cameroon – Beans and Rice

By Verdzekov Bernard

This is a heavy dish. Beans and rice. Beans is a meal that can be cooked in several ways. Either by boiling or by frying. But in this article, I will talk on the two methods of preparing beans. Beans could be eating with ripe plantains or rice or sweet potatoes. There are all good accompaniment with beans. To prepare beans, they are couple ingredient you will need;

Ingredient

• 10 cups of beans
• 2 cups palm oil or vegetable oil
• 1 inch of ginger
• 8 cloves of garlics
• 1 large bulb of onion
• 5 to 7 Tomatoes (optional)
• Salt to taste
• 4-6 cups of maggi
• Leeks
• Pepper.
• 2 cups of ground Cray fish

Procedure

• Select the beans seeds, separating the bad once from the good once.
• Soak beans overnight in water.
• Remove beans and drain and put in a pot and boil. Beans should be boiled half-done, after which you remove and keep aside. But this will take approximately half an hour. While beans is on the fire start preparing spices.
• Blend ginger, garlics and leeks and keep aside. Slice your onions and keep.
• NOTE: Make sure the water in the beans pot exceeds the beans in the pot.
• After half an hour, taste to make sure beans is half done and not totally ready. The taste for half-done is simple. When you taste beans and it is semi hard and soft, that means it is half done. You won’t necessary taste by eating the beans.
• When it is half done, remove beans and drain well. After you drain, wash beans again with fresh clean water. Do this about twice. This is just to make sure the beans seed are cleaned well before you proceed to further cooking.
• Clean the beans pot you used for boiling or use another pot. In this stage of cooking, they are three ways you may love to proceed from here. This is either the frying method or the normal cooking method.

I will write on the two ways. I hope it helps.

• If you are to fry then add tomatoes to the ingredients.  Then don’t blend ingredients. It won’t be necessary. You may blend just ginger and garlics. The rest of the spices, just wash and chop them with a knife.
• Put your vegetable oil in the pot and allow it to get heated. Pour in your tomatoes and fry for about 2min then pour in onions and ginger, together with green spices and fry. After frying for about 3-4min, pour in your beans and steer well.
• Add crayfish and steer well.
• Fry the beans for about 5min then you add about 3cups of water and close your pot. Allow pot for about 20min, open and steer making sure water hasn’t dried off. Add 2 more cups of water and close pot. Leave pot for about 30min more. Open and check if is ready.
• If you see that the vegetable oil used is small during cooking process, you could still add. But when you do so steer well then leave it for some time. Let’s say 10min.

Serve with boiled rice or ripe plantain. Your choice to make.

• If you want to use the other cooking process, then blend your spices. You may still want to use tomatoes but it is optional.
• After washing your beans, turn into the cooking pot. Put in your blended spices and onions. Pour in palm oil and crayfish, then cover pot. After about 10min open pot and steer well. put in maggi and salt to taste and steer. Close pot and leave it for 30min. Open and add about 3cups of water after observing the beans is dry.
• Close and leave it for 30min. Check if ready, then serve.

The process of cooking beans could take at most 1hr and at list 1hr 30min.

The frying process and normal cooking style of cooking beans may take different time frames. So, in order to prevent over cooking (over done beans), just do the cooking checks.

Serve

Note: The process of soaking is optional. This process of soaking is just to help economize time and fuel wood or gas. You may boil beans directly without soaking it. But this will take more time to get ready and also more cooking or fuel wood. So, it is your choice to make. Thank you.