The 12 Weeks of Christmas-Week 1: Cameroon

Welcome to my 12 Weeks of Christmas blog project! Here I will be trying out foods eaten around the world during the holiday season that I have never made before. I narrowed it down to to the nations that showed up on my Ancestry.com and 23andme DNA test results. Some weeks will be full meals. Some weeks will be all desserts or baked goods, and some will be a mix. I'm really looking forward to trying out the really traditional classics that I've eaten or seen my whole life, but never bothered to make from scratch. 

Week 1 is Cameroon, a nation in Central Africa.

Christmas in Cameroon. 

(Map source: Britannica.com)

I found some really delicious recipes to try and was happy that all of them turned out well! This was originally supposed to be Cameroon and Congo, but the recipes I selected ended up being only Cameroonian, so I decided to just focus on the that country this time.

For my main entree, was a chicken dish called Kati Kati. And for the side and veggie, were Njama Njama and Fufu.

Since these recipes are not mine, I will not be writing them out, but the links will take you to the recipes.

First up, is the Kati Kati. This is a grilled chicken dish that is finished in the sauce. The chicken is marinated in a delicious blend of spices and oil, and the sauce is made from fresh tomatoes and onion. I used the tomatoes from my porch that have finally been ripening and they were really amazing!

The sauce is made in a food processor. You can add a little water if you need to, but my tomatoes were so ripe I didn't need to add any at all. In the bowl next to it is the cornmeal and water for the fufu(more details below).

Post pureeing. It smells so amazing! Because the chicken gets added to the sauce and it's so highly seasoned, you don't need to add more seasoning to the sauce. You put this in a pot on the stove with a Tablespoon of tomato paste and heat well. I did end up having to add more water as it did get a little too dried out, especially when you add the chicken and need to let it cook for a while.

Post-marinating, using my grill pan to get a nice grill on all sides. Super easy this way but you could just as easily do it on a grill outside if that's an option for you.

I think the grill pan worked really well. I highly recommend having one if you don't already have one!

Once it's nicely grilled on all sides, you add it to the sauce and blend well. This is when I added about a half cup of water to allow the sauce to cover the chicken well. Cover the pot and let it cook over low heat till the chicken is cooked through. The recipe I used called for thighs, but I wanted to use up some legs I have in the freezer. I think any cut would work, really.

Next up is the Njama Njama. I used collard greens since turnip greens aren't available here. More fresh tomatoes from my plant, a habanero pepper, and regular onions are the basis for the dish. It calls for smoked turkey, but I wanted it to be meat-free, so I used smoked paprika instead of regular as a trade off.

You start off sauteing the onions in oil before adding the tomatoes and pepper and the recipe calls for Maggi cubes, which are chicken boullion cubes, so I used what I had on hand instead. I have a bottle of powdered bouillon I got when the pandemic started and for some reason chicken broth was hard to find. I wanted some sort of option, so I got that instead. It's not a general go-to for me, but it's not bad. Added to the vegetables like this was a new idea to me, but it turns out it's a great flavor!

This is after it's cooked down. I added the smoked paprika too. I didn't add salt, as the bouillon is salty enough already to not need more.

You blanch the collard greens and drain them well before adding it to the pot and blending well. This turned out to be really tasty! I cut the pepper in half and removed the pith and seeds and kept the halves intact so I could remove them more easily. I'm a spice wimp, but this turned out to be just perfect!

The last element of the dish was the Fufu. Fufu is a really popular and common side dish in West and Central African cooking. It's very simple, just cornmeal and water. You don't even add salt. It's sort of a polenta or like the base for tamales, but without any filling.

When you finish cooking it, you portion into plastic wrap or foil and shape them into balls. I think if I had to do this one over, even if it's not generally done, I would have added some salt. It was really plain. But I mixed some of the sauce from the chicken and stirred the greens into it and it was fine after that. The pictures I've seen online made it look like it was supposed to be firmer than it was. I think it's traditionally eaten with your fingers and you're supposed to shape into a ball. Mine was softer than that, though I did try to eat it with my fingers but it just made a huge mess so I switched to a fork. It's possible I needed to use finer cornmeal than I had, but I just used what I had on hand.

This turned out to be a colorful, flavorful, fun meal to make. It's Christmas colors you get to eat! Just look at it! This was really delicious and I have leftovers to look forward to tomorrow night. I would definitely make this meal again.

I think it does make it extra special to cook foods that you know your ancestors probably ate. Foods that connect you to where they came from. I found myself thinking about them and wondering what life was like for them. My African ancestry comes from my mom's side. We speculate it's all through my mom's dad, but as neither of my grandparents are alive on that side of the family, we're unable to trace our DNA definitively past my mom's generation. It's possible some of it came from my mom's mom, but we'll likely never know for sure.

If you're looking for something really different for a Christmas dinner this year, this would be a great option! I highly recommend this meal!