Smoked fish
Also called: poisson boucané, dry fish, smoked mackerel, maquereau fumé, smoked catfish
This is fish smoked and dried over a wood fire until firm and dry. It smells strongly of smoke and has a concentrated taste that seasons the whole pot. The flesh flakes apart and holds up to long simmering, where fresh fish would fall to pieces. In Cameroonian markets it is mostly mackerel and catfish, sold whole or in pieces.
Few ingredients turn up in more Cameroonian dishes. Lumo has eight recipes that use it, including ndolé from the Littoral, eru, ekwang, afang soup and egusi pudding from the South-West, corn chaff from the North-West, banane malaxée from the West and okok salé from the South. Choose fish that is properly dry, with no mould and no sour smell. Before cooking, soak it in hot water for a few minutes to soften it and rinse out any grit, then remove the skin, the head if needed and the bones, and flake the flesh. Store it dry in a sealed bag, or in the freezer if you want it to last longer.
Abroad, African grocery shops sell smoked fish, usually catfish or mackerel, sometimes vacuum-packed or frozen. Supermarket smoked mackerel will do in a pinch. It is softer and less smoky, so add it near the end of cooking to keep it from breaking up.
Recipes with this ingredient
- 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.
- Egusi Pudding Sud-Ouest · 1 hr 25 min
A steamed Cameroonian delicacy: ground melon seeds blended with stock and spices, wrapped in plantain leaves and steamed into a firm pudding.
- 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.
- Ndolé Littoral · 1 hr 30 min
Cameroon's national dish: washed bitterleaf simmered with a rich ground-peanut paste, beef, smoked fish and crayfish.
- 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.