Bakweri Specia, Cameroon – Kwacoco and Banga soup

By Verdzekov Bernard

BAKWERI SPECIAL BY THE BAKWERI PEOPLE OF CAMEROON

In Africa, and Cameroon to be précised, our women must know how to cook. That is an extra and wonderful boost for her finding a man she could get married to. Not only Cameroon has this habit but we have Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa and many more African countries. But the countries I know that take this attitude serious is Nigeria and Cameroon. The men make sure their women the marry can cook well, not only cooking well but African/traditional dishes in particular (Our traditional dishes).

Cameroon has so many dishes and that comes with the so many tribes too. Some, have used these traditional dishes to even sing songs and some to make money out of it. That is, the learn how to cooked these dishes to open restaurants and to cook for occasions such as weddings and burial ceremonies. I have this traditional dish I am about to write on. It is called Kwacoco and Banga soup. You should note that, with African dishes or Cameroonian dishes local ingredients are being used, and this local ingredient are not found everywhere around the world. Some are really rare to fine. This makes our dishes somehow difficult to prepare, and one of those main reason of difficulty is, the ingredients are difficult to be found. This dish which am about to write on, its main ingredient is palm kernel. The palm kernel comes from palm tree. This dish is delicious, heavy and nutritional. This is Bakweri Special.

INGREEDIENTS NEEDED

• 3-5 large cocoyams
• 3-5 bowls of palm nuts
• Maggi
• Salt
• 2kg of dry meat
• Smoked/dry fish
• One bulb of onions
• Banana leaves. (10-15)
• Mortar and pistol to pawn.
• Grind crayfish
• Pepper(optional)

COOKING PROCESS

• Warm about 3 to 5 cups of water.
• Peel cocoyams. Wash them before you grater. Grater the cocoyams into a bowl and leave it there. Put salt to taste and stare. Leave gratered cocoyams and arrange your banana leave. Clean banana leaves and warm until it is a little bit dark. The warmed leaves should be cut in good presentable shapes. Take the grate cocoyams and put into the warm leaves. Wrap carefully and put into the pot. The shapes in which you wrap the leaves should be in a rectangle form.
• Make sure your banana leaves are not worn out. Replace the worn-out leave.
• Put the wrapped cocoyams into the pot in an orderly manner. The warm water you boiled, put it into the pot then on the heat. This is to take about 45min-1hr to get ready. After every 10minuts or 20min open the pot to check, making sure the water in the pot is not dried off. If it has, you add every time it does.
• When your kwacoco is ready, leave it in the pot or you transfer to a heat preservative flask.
• Banga soup has its own process. Boil for close to 1hr the palm-nuts. After doing this, transfer the hot palm nuts with the water into a mortar and pawn well using a pistol. When pawning, add hot water to it. Which this means that before doing this you must have boiled enough water so that you can use when pawning. After you have pawned for about 30 minutes and have extracted the paste drain well making sure you are left with just the paste.
• Transfer the paste to a pot and warm for about 10min. you may add your sliced bulb of onion scales into the pot. Boil under low heat for about 15 more minutes. Add your washed dry meat into the pot too, add your 3-4 cubs of maggi and salt to taste, pepper, grind cray fish and your dried fish. Make sure you don’t scatter the fish. The fish is preferred and nicer when left whole or rather big pieces. Leave the pot for about 5min and you are ready to serve the dish Kwacoco and Banga Soup.
• NOTE: this meal is eating using your hands. NO cutleries. Wash your hands and enjoy the meal. Bon appétit.