Along time ago I asked a dear friend who came from a West African country called Cameroon. I asked her did she try this. Actually this soup is not originally from her tribe because her tribe and her are from the western part of cameroon. Also from what I heard a there was a genocide in Cameroon and it makes me really unhappy why people can not get along. smh. Actually it is between French speaking Cameroon and the minority of English speaking Cameroon. A lot of people died which is horrible. The USA Ambassador to Cameroon has been speaking and the South West is the British part where English is spoken called also Abazonia.
When I looked this up just now my heart grew extremely heavy because My friend is from this part of Cameroon and she has family there too. I have not been speaking to her aunt much since the genocide has even taken place her aunt I consider as a dear friend and I pray every day that her and the rest of my friend’s family are alright. However one day my friend decided to surpise me with this soup and I very much enjoyed it a lot
Actually I also watched a few videos to see how this is done and I couldn’t find achu spice for a very long time until I seen it on Amazon and I snapped up a couple of bags. It was boom boom boom in a hurry. I usually do this if I don’t see it elsewhere. After I seen a few of them I ended up getting the gist of it from watching YouTube videos. One of them was a lady from Texas who is an American who has a European ancestry and her husband is from Cameroon and mashallah they have 3 adorable kids. They are the Seasoning Angels and they help their mom out in the kitchen. Before I get the soup started I would pressure cook on high in my instant pot for 30 minutes, drain, peel, pound, and wrap in to plastic wrap so it doesn’t dry out.
I can’t ask my friend to bring me achu soup for me forever so I did it myself and I am going to show you how I did it. If you are going to use tripe I suggest you clean your tripe by removing the fatty parts from it first if the inside and then rinse it out well. Add 1 huge handful of kosher salt and rub the tripe very well and then rinse a lot in large bowls full of water and add 1 to 2 caps of white vinegar and more water to finish cleaning it and getting rid of the smell. So It is either 1 lb or 1 kg of tripe, goat, lamb, turkey, chicken, beef or veal, They also can be smoked too except for the tripe. Here is my This Is My First Time Smoking Meat recipe or using a smoked turkey tail like I did. Add 3 pieces of smoked dried fish soaked to get the excess salt off of it along with 6 pices of stockfish. Add 1 bullion cube ground or 2 pinches of bullion powder, either chopped habenero or scotch bonnet chilli deseeded or 1 pinch of either red chili powder or African yellow chili powder, 1 pinch each of country onion, crayfish, 2 cloves of garlic, 1 onion or shallot, . dashes of either knorr or maggi aroma, 6 cups of water.
Place these in either stovetop pressure cooker or instent pot for 30 minutes and if tripe and other protiens are still tough repeat for another. Stovetop method 30 minutes after the float button pops up and when done shut off and let pressure escape, instant pot is no worries because when time is done it shuts off and then you can place the steam diverter over the top of the steam escape valve then hit quick release. While cooking take 2 pinches of either limestone or baking soda and mix it with 1 oz of water and set to the side. This is for use after the meat is done.
I only used smoked turkey tail, smoked catfish and stockfish in mine so I boiled this on stovetop for 45 minutes on low then turned heat off. Take all of the meat out of the stock and place in a big enough bowl. and that includes the stockfish pieces too. If using instant pot then it is about time you remove the inner lining from the pot with the stock in it because now it is time to add stuff there to be blitzed with an immersion blender which means no more transfering contents ever.
Now take some palm oil and run hot water on it so it can flow a lot easily in to the pot and you will need 1/4 cup of it plus the water that had either the limestone or baking soda. The stock is starting to change color already, don’t worry the palm oil will heat up in the hot liquid and it is time to blitz it until it turns yellow. After It turned yellow and creamy I readded the meat back to the pot plus a random can of fish in either brine or oil and empty in to the soup and stir briskly. Add 1 or 2 pinches of achu spice at the end and stir some more. Take this taro which I made enough for 2 helpings, shape in to a ball in to a bowl and make a well in the middle and put the yummy yellow soup inside.
I have used a can of sardines this time in the yellow soup. You can use tuna, salmon. mackerel, crab, shrimp, and mollusks too. I seriously hope you will enjoy.
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