Cameroon – Banga-Rice

by Verdzekov Bernard

We could use Palm kennel in so many cooking process. When it is harvested and still fresh, you use it to extract the oil. After extracting the oil, that is after oil the oil has been emitted, the skin is then dwell dried and used for lighting up fire. Then in it is the kennel. This kennel could be eating or dried and oil extracted from it. In my country, it is called banga. It is usually prepared as soup then served with an accompaniment like kwacoco, garri ect, but today, after reading this article on local cuisine, you will know how to prepare Banga Rice. 

There are so many meals that have been prepared by different people in different areas all over the world. Some meals are not even known yet. The food any one eats it depends on the individual, their health and diet. This is common with those in the western world. In my country, we don’t really do that, we just eat. So long as you are hungry what so ever is served if you love it, you eat. Many people benefit from food nutrients that they don’t even know. 

Banga is important. Same as the soup. Without this palm kennel, I am not sure they would have ever been red oil. The red oil you eat in your meal is extracted from this palm kennels. So basically, this is a very important farm produce. Many have taken it as business and are making good money from it. So, to prepare banga rice follow the guid below; 

Kitchen tools

• Knife 
• Bowl
• Motta and pestle 
• Pot 
• Cooking spoon 

Ingredients

• Rice 
• Palm kennel 
• Pepper 
• Banga spices 
• Maggi 
• Salt to taste 
• Crayfish 
• Dry fish or smoke cat fish
• Onions 
• Scent leaves

Procedure

• Normally I will teach again how to extract your palm oil. That is liquid. So pay attention and read carefully. 
• Wash you’re your palm kennels and put into a pot. Add water to about half the pot the boil for 30min. At this time, the palm kennel is soft and some of the oil even coming out already. 
• Turn the palm kennel in your morta, then using your pestle, pawn very well until you see the hard-black layer of the palm kennel. Squeeze making sure you are doing your best remove all the palm kennel liquid. That is the red oil. 
• After doing that, boil again slightly to remove all foam, then keep aside. You could preserve some in the refrigerator if you won’t be using all of it to prepare your Banga rice. 
• Wash your rice, drain and keep aside. 
• Put your palm kennel extract in your main cooking pot and boil. 
• Add grind pepper, add banga spices, and your season cubes or maggi, add your salt to taste, ground crayfish, then you stir well…
• Add your full pepper and your rice, stir well, then cover pot. 
• After 10min open and add your dry scattered smoked fish stir well and cover pot for about 10min, open and add your onions, chopped pepper and your scent leaves. Cover pot for 20mins more, making sure you are opening the pot and checking for water. This is because, water has to get dry when the rice is ready. If the rice is not ready but the water has dried, you will need to estimate the level of readiness for the rice before adding water. At this stage in cooking, If you should make a mistake with the quantity of water, like let me say, adding more water, your rice will get too soft and that might spoil the meal.

Serve…

Enjoy…