Caribbean Cameroonian Cuisine

What a fun week I have had. Thank you to all of you who sent birthday greetings – I even received some really, really amazing gifts via DHL that just blew me AWAY!!!!

When I packed my things in October to have shipped over in November – I included a few fun food items that I knew would help make certain days special. Dwight, my mom’s husband, laughed at my taking various seed and nut breadings for fish and chicken – however, I KNEW that I would have use for them. One such food saver vacuumed packet included a Chili Macadamia Nut breading that I had purchased from Central Market.

so, please Miss Kerry, again – what are they going to eat? This would not fill a small child?

I decided to have a little dinner party with some of my new friends here. I built my menu around the Macadamia Nut breading. Not my typical method for planning a menu – but, hey, new place, new technique – right?

Monday, Jonas took me into town so that I could do some grocery shopping. We stopped at an open grill kiosk where they were smoking / grilling chicken, beef and lamb. I needed to find out prices on the beef for menu ideas for the construction team coming next week. As I chatted with the guys behind the grill about pricing – they offered me a little piece of the leg of lamb. YUM – DELICIOUS! It was so good. I knew that I figure out a way to incorporate it into my menu. They don’t really sell meat by small quantity – preferring to sell the entire leg. I talked him into letting me have a little bit with the promise that I would be back to buy a “brisket-like” piece of beef. [the cuts of beef here are not standardized like they are in the states – so, some of the cuts are quite a mystery]. From there, we went to purchase cheese, a few other small items and our final stop – the fish market.

Here in Cameroon, there are many kinds of fish – but my favorite BY FAR is the capitaine. It is a thick, white, succulent piece of fish – very few bones (unlike the baa that is almost ALL bones), very mild fish. Like Salmon, it has a fat content – not enough to be overwhelming, just enough to keep it really, really moist during cooking. It kind of reminds me of grouper.

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Final Menu – Caribbean in Cameroon:

Appetizers:

- Mini Goat Cheese Lamb Tostaditas topped with Diced Oven Roasted Tomatoes

- Spicy Chicken Empanadas

- Mini Puff Pastry Cups with Brie Bites glazed with Guava Jam

Entrée:

- Macadamia & Toasted Coconut Crusted Capitaine w/ spicy Mango Pineapple Chili Sauce garnished with Paprika Chili Aioli

- Coconut Milk Potatoes w/ Parsley

- Julienne Vegetable Medley

Soft Potato Bread w/ Rosemary Olive Oil Dipping Sauce

Green Salad (Emily brought)

Dessert (Lisa and Meg brought):

- Angel Food Cake (Lisa made – delicious and light!)

- Caramel Ice Cream (the ice cream here isn’t high in butter fat, it reminds me of ice milk that Weight Watchers used to recommend)

- Sweet Pineapple Chunks (Julie brought)

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Tuesday, the girls in the kitchen watched as I prepped out the food for my party. They were busy with other work related projects – but were amused and fascinated by the type of food that I was preparing. After seeing the tiny appetizers – Hilda asked me several times, “so, please Miss Kerry, again – what are they going to eat? This would not fill a small child?”

Cameroonians do not typically like sweet with their meat. When I told Hilda and Rebecca about the mango sauce – their eyes became HUGE and they were mortified that I was going to ruin such a nice fish! I don’t know that I ever convinced them otherwise. Cici (my fruit juice friend) was coming to the party and when Hilda found that out – she told me that Cici would not like the fish. Cici is proof that not ALL Cameroonians abide by the rule of no sweet with meat – she loved it and wants to learn how I made it.

The party was wonderful – the AOC dining hall is pretty rough, but it’s amazing what some flowers and candles will do for a room!!!! The food turned out GREAT if I may say so myself. We had a fun evening of laughing and wonderful conversation. Julie (my Scottish friend) is packing up and leaving for home this weekend – I’m going to miss her so very much. It was really great to get to spend some relaxing quality time with her again as we haven’t had much chance to do that since Kribi. In fact, we had so much fun that I completely forgot to take pictures. Sorry!

And, while I enjoy cooking comfort food, casseroles, pizza as well as learning new Cameroonian dishes; it was really, really fun to cook fancy food again . . . awesome to be able to pull it off here where things are so hard to come by. All in all a delicious and wonderful challenge for me as well as a professional stretch to pull in local ingredients with a food theme from the other side of the world.