Cameroon Photo Blog #36 - Couscous, Tuwo or Boule, one of the most common dishes in West/Central Africa
Hi you all Steemians,
today I want to talk about what Africans eat.
I'm talking mainly about African Couscous. It's not Couscous like we know it, it's a dumpling made out of any flour you have at hand, corn, wheat, rice, manioc or yams.
In Nigeria they call it Tuwo or Tuwon, in other African countries it's simply called boule, which means ball.
In Ngaoundéré they call it Couscous and in Mbum, the language I was working on, it is called hur. It was introduced by Hausa traders and Fulfulde nomads and is very popular in Northern Cameroon.
The preparation is very simple. You boil water in a pot and add a certain amount of flour.
Here you see Geneviève, the wife of Hairou, a friend of mine, preparing my favorite couscous with manioc flour.
You have to use batôn to mix the water and the flour evenly.
Then you have to 'beat' the couscous on the fire until it's done.
Here Fadi, another friend of mine is holding the pot to help Gené to get an even mash.
When it's evenly cooked you form small or big balls. Some people put those into little plastic bags, so the don't stick together.
You can eat it with any sauce you like, with meat or without meat. In northern Cameroon there are different sauces that accompany couscous.
There is a baobab sauce, a green meat sauce with baobab leaves, which can be bought as a trendy, powdered superfood in Europe:
Then there many different meat sauces and soups that can be eaten with couscous, of which I unfortunately don't have many pictures, except this one:
But my favorite 'sauce' is more a green, leafy vegetable, of which I have forgotten the name. It resembles spinach with a little bitter taste. It's cooked in red palm oil that adds another bitter quality. It's very healthy and tastes really good.
Love, Unity & Abundance
Holger