Cameroon – Bamileke Sauce Jaune

by Djougwa Kouemo Patricia

This food is highly eaten by the bamilekes in the western region in Cameroon, there are many regions which the Bagante, Bafang, Bana and many others. Each of these regions and other regions in Cameroon has their own different ways of cooking sauce jaune, like in mankon they do local limestone which they named it (Niki) this limestone is made up of  dry peelings of plantains or dry peelings of bananas and burn them to ashes, then it is place in a bowl and water added in to it the filtered and now the liquid can play the same role with a limestone in sauce jaune. this dish consist of soft fufu and the sauce jaune which it main ingredient is limestone, this is what give it final taste of the sauce jaune , as for the sauce jaune you can buy it in the local market. sauce jaune can be eaten with soft fufu, banana and  turning plantains which is also famous in the bamileke tradition.

In the bamileke region of cameroon it is like a tradition to always cook sauce jaune during a celebration of a traditional marriage, sauce jaune always has to be present  in a traditional marriage  because its the meal that makes up the tradition and give it respect. Sauce jaune  is eaten with hands and it has it own special way of dishing it, which most  be respected. When you dont dish achu as it is supposed to be dish and a bamileke see you disgracing their meal it will be a taboo. So always respect the value of this famous dish. The bamileke respect their cultures a lot and most especially their traditional food which each has it significant and it message to deliver.

Sauce jaune is very good for diabetic patients and it enables you to digest very fast. This dish is a very natural  meal and does  not need many ingredients.

Lets us move to the ingredients

• ½kg cow meat
• 2 cups of red oil
• 2 sauce jaune
• 2 spoons of limestone
• Maggie cube to taste
• 3 Pepper(optional)

Method

• Wash your cow meat and remove all unwanted part and slice it as desired.
• Place your pot on fire , then add in 1/2liter of water, salt to taste  then add the cow meat in to the pot and allow it cook about 30minutes.
• Make sure the cow meat should cook well so that it can be easy to chew.
• After 30 minutes has pass remove the pot on fire, then seperate the meat from the stock and let it cold and be lukeworm.
• Keep the meat aside
• In another pot heat your 2 cups of red oil for about 1 minutes then add in the 2 spoons of limestone then add in the stock water. In a graining machine pour in the mixture then add 2 spoons of  sauce jaune spieces, then add in maggie cube and blend it well.
• When the mixture becomes yellowish you can stop splending but before  removing it from the blender taste whether the maggie is tasty if not you can add and blend it again.
• Shifter the sauce jaune after blending with a shifter to remove the unwantes species.   
• Wash your 3 pepper  boil it for about 5 minutes .
• Then you can serve it with your meat aside and pepper aside.