Eru

finely shredded forest vine cooked down with waterleaf and red palm oil until the two greens collapse into one another

Origin: Bamenda, Kumba & South-West Cameroon

From the journey of Oil Palm.

Eru is Gnetum africanum, a wiry forest vine whose leaves are shredded to something close to thread before cooking. It is not a farmed plant. Every attempt to bring it into cultivation at scale has struggled, and the eru sold in Cameroonian markets is still gathered from standing forest, which has made it steadily more expensive and is now a live conservation question rather than a hypothetical one. The dish pairs it with waterleaf, Talinum triangulare, and the pairing is doing chemistry as well as flavour. Eru is tough and low in moisture; waterleaf is soft and releases a great deal of liquid. Cooked together the waterleaf effectively steams the eru and then reduces away, leaving the vine tender and the pot almost dry. Red palm oil goes in generously at the end and coats everything. It belongs to the Bayangi and the peoples of the South-West and North-West of Cameroon, and it travelled with them: eru is eaten across the Nigerian border in Cross River, where it is called afang and made with more of the same, and in Equatorial Guinea and Gabon. It is served with water fufu, the fermented cassava swallow, and it is one of the dishes Cameroonians abroad will pay a great deal to obtain.

Ingredients

  • 300 g eru (Gnetum africanum) leaves, very finely shredded, fresh or frozen
  • 600 g waterleaf, or spinach as a substitute, roughly chopped
  • 150 ml red palm oil
  • 300 g cow skin (kanda) or tripe, cleaned and cut small
  • 200 g smoked fish, boned and flaked
  • 200 g beef, in small pieces
  • 3 tbsp ground crayfish
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 2 scotch bonnet chillies, chopped
  • 2 stock cubes
  • 1 tsp salt, or to taste
  • 400 ml water

Method

  1. Simmer the beef and cow skin together with the onion, one stock cube, and the water until tender. Cow skin takes a long time and should be genuinely soft, an hour or more if starting from raw. Keep the liquid.
  2. Wash the waterleaf and chop it roughly. Do not dry it: the water clinging to it is part of the method.
  3. Add the waterleaf to the pot of meat and liquid and cook for five minutes until it wilts completely and releases its water.
  4. Add the shredded eru, pushing it down into the liquid. Cook for twenty-five minutes, stirring occasionally. The eru will soften as the waterleaf's moisture works through it.
  5. Add the smoked fish, ground crayfish, chillies, and second stock cube. Continue cooking uncovered so the liquid reduces.
  6. When the pot is nearly dry, ten to fifteen minutes later, pour in the palm oil and stir it through thoroughly. Cook for a final five minutes so the oil coats everything and loses any raw edge.
  7. Taste for salt. The finished dish should be glossy and almost dry rather than soupy, and the eru should be tender with a slight resistance. Serve with water fufu or garri.

Notes

Eru is sold frozen and pre-shredded in African groceries and that is the practical route; fresh leaves must be shredded very finely indeed or they stay tough. Spinach is a workable stand-in for waterleaf but releases less liquid, so add 100ml more water and expect a shorter cook. The dish should finish nearly dry: a wet eru means the reduction was cut short. Palm oil goes in at the end, never at the start, or it fries rather than coats.

The Gastrographer

The Gastrographer

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Ingredient originTrade or transit route
Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control
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