Nkui stems
Also called: nkui, nkwi, écorces de nkui, nkui bark
Nkui stems come from a plant used in the West of Cameroon, in Bamiléké country. They are sold dried, in small bundles. They add almost no flavour. Their job is texture: worked in water, they release a mucilage that makes nkui sauce slippery and stretchy, so it pulls into strands when you lift it.
Lumo has one recipe that uses them: nkui, a sauce from the West usually eaten with corn fufu (couscous de maïs). The sauce also takes its own spice blend, sold separately as nkui spices. To prepare the stems, soak them in warm water to soften them, then crush them or rub them between your hands in the water until it turns thick and slimy. Strain out the fibres before cooking. Choose stems that are fully dry, with no mould, and keep them in a closed bag somewhere dry.
Outside Cameroon, nkui stems are mostly found in Cameroonian grocery shops, with the dried goods, often sold alongside the nkui spices. There is no real substitute. Okra also gives a slippery texture, but the result has neither the taste nor the body of nkui.
Recipes with this ingredient
- 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.