August 28th, 2016 by Rachel | Tags: Food, Peace Corps | No Comments »
Koke is one of my most favorite Cameroonian dishes. It’s a dinner version of a flan or cake. It has soft and moist texture, and the taste melts in my mouth. It can also be very nutritious depending on which ingredients one uses. Koke originated from Meme and Indian division of Southwest region.
A Cameroonian friend and work partner, Antonia, was gracious to invite me to her home and teach me how to make a Koke. Here is the recipe on how to make it. One can change the ingredients to best fit the palette of a person and/or make it healthier. This recipe makes enough Koke for five people.
Ingredients
- 5 cups of black head beans (They can be found in Asian shops in the US. You can substitute them for chickpeas)
- 5 cups of water
- 1 1/2 cup of palm oil (you can substitute it for olive oil)
- 5 teaspoon of salt
- One cup of chopped onions or any vegetables (optional)
Instruction
- Preheat the oven at 350 F or 180 C.
- Wash the beans and take the black heads and skin off. If you use chickpeas and buy them in a can, you do not need to wash them and take the skin off.
- Put the beans and water in an electric blender and blend them.
- Add chopped vegetables if you have any to the blender and blend them.
- Add and mix in the palm oil or olive oil and salt.
- Pour one to two cups into a tin foil and close up the tin foil. You can also poor the mix into a pan.
- Cook for one hour in the oven or until it becomes firm and cake-y.
Antonia removes the black heads and skin from the beans.
In Cameroon, one would normally use a leaf from a palm tree instead of tin foil to cook the koke. Antonia warms the leaf before putting the mix inside the leaf.
Antonia mixes the ingredients in the blender.
Antonia uses leaves as a vegetable ingredient to mix in the koke.
Antonia mixes in the palm oil into the mix.
Antonia puts the mix into a leaf.
Antonia closes up the leaf and ties the top together with a string.
Antonia cooks the koke in a dutch oven, which means uses a pot and cooking the dish inside the pot on a stove.
Antonia demonstrates how to put the koke mix into a tin foil.
Antonia closes up the tin foil.
This is the finished result of Koke.
