Kanwa (potash)
Also called: kaun, limestone, natron, akanwu, sel de kanwa
Kanwa is a natural mineral salt, sold in greyish or off-white lumps in Cameroonian markets. In French it is often called potasse, and in the North-West people call it limestone. At small doses it has almost no taste, but it changes the texture of whatever it cooks with.
It softens tough leaves and dried beans, cuts the bitterness of some greens and makes okra draw. Most important of all, it lets palm oil and water bind into an emulsion, which is how the yellow soup for achu gets its creamy body. It also goes into nkui from the West, pommes pilées and okra sauce. Lumo has four recipes that use it: achu with yellow soup, nkui, pommes pilées and okra sauce with beef.
To use it, crush a piece, dissolve it in a little water, let it settle, then pour off only the clear liquid and leave the sediment behind. Go easy. Too much kanwa makes food taste soapy and bitter. Store it in a sealed jar somewhere dry. Abroad, African grocers stock it, sometimes as kaun or potash. Some cooks use a small pinch of baking soda instead to soften food or make okra draw. For achu yellow soup, the result is not 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.
- Nkui Ouest · 1 hr 30 min
A traditional Bamiléké dish: Nkui stems worked in warm water into a glossy, stretchy sauce with country spices, eaten by hand with soft couscous.
- Okra Beef Sauce Centre · 45 min
A glossy okra sauce with tender beef, cow skin, crayfish and chili. Quick, light and best eaten with a swallow.
- Pounded Potatoes Ouest · 1 hr
A Western-Highlands comfort dish: boiled Irish potatoes pounded with black beans and folded into red palm oil.