Red palm oil
Also called: red oil, palm oil, huile rouge, huile de palme brute, Elaeis guineensis
Red palm oil is the unrefined oil pressed from the fruit of the oil palm. It is a deep orange-red, with a strong aroma and a slightly fruity taste. It sets solid in cool weather and turns liquid again when warm.
It is the base oil of much of Cameroonian cooking. It gives eru, afang soup, ekwang, koki and salted okok their colour and taste. In the West it binds pommes pilées and banane malaxée. In the North-West it goes into corn chaff and khati khati, and above all into the yellow soup served with achu, where it is beaten with kanwa water until it turns into a smooth yellow cream. Lumo has ten recipes that use it, from achu to koki.
Buy oil that is a strong red colour and smells clean, never rancid. Keep it at room temperature in a closed container, away from light and heat. If it has set, stand the bottle in hot water for a few minutes. Abroad, African grocers sell it, usually labelled red palm oil. Do not confuse it with refined palm oil, which is pale and has no flavour. There is no real substitute. Another oil will cook the dish, but the colour and taste will not be the same.
Recipes with this ingredient
- Achu & Yellow Soup Nord-Ouest · 2 hr 10 min
A North-West signature: smoothly pounded taro served with the famous yellow soup, an emulsion of red palm oil and limestone (kanwa) loaded with spices and assorted meat.
- Afang Soup Sud-Ouest · 1 hr 30 min
A rich Calabar-style soup: pounded afang (okazi) leaves and waterleaf cooked with goat meat, dried fish, periwinkle and palm oil.
- Banane Malaxée Ouest · 1 hr
A Western Cameroon green-plantain stew with peanuts: plantains cooked in a blended peanut and country-spice sauce with smoked fish and red palm oil.
- Corn Chaff Nord-Ouest · 45 min
A hearty anglophone corn-and-beans porridge, seasoned with crayfish, smoked fish, palm oil and fresh green spices.
- Ekwang Sud-Ouest · 2 hr 30 min
A South-West speciality: grated cocoyam wrapped in tender cocoyam leaves and slow-cooked with smoked fish, crayfish and red palm oil.
- Eru Sud-Ouest · 1 hr
A South-West classic: finely shredded eru (okazi) and waterleaf greens stewed with beef, cow skin, smoked fish and crayfish in plenty of red palm oil.
- Khati Khati Nord-Ouest · 50 min
A North-West grassfield dish: roasted chicken simmered in red palm oil with simple seasoning, traditionally eaten with corn fufu and huckleberry.
- Koki Littoral · 2 hr
A steamed bean cake: peeled black-eyed peas blended with red palm oil, wrapped in leaves and steamed until set.
- Okok Salé Sud · 2 hr
The savoury southern Cameroon (Beti/Bulu) version: finely pounded okok leaves simmered in palm-nut juice with beef, smoked fish and crayfish.
- Pounded Potatoes Ouest · 1 hr
A Western-Highlands comfort dish: boiled Irish potatoes pounded with black beans and folded into red palm oil.