Boiling • Simmering and Stewing • palm nuts • palm soup base (canned "sauce graine" or "noix de palme") • Central Africa • Western Africa
Palm Butter Soups
Many African recipes call for the fruit and oil of the African oil palm (Elaesis guineensis). Palm-butter is made from the fruit, which can be further refined to obtain the red palm oil used in many African recipes. If you live outside the tropics and cannot obtain fresh palm nuts, canned palm soup base or palm nut pulp (also called sauce graine, noix de palme, or cream of palm fruit) is the same thing and can be used in the recipes below. Look for canned Palm Soup Base in International or African grocery stores. See also: See also: Abenkwan on Rare Recipes: Alice Dede; and Poulet Moambé or Poulet Nyembwe; Moambé Stew; and Palm-Oil Chop
Palm Butter Recipe
Ingredients
100 fresh, ripe, palm nuts (available only in the tropics)
Instructions
1
Bring two or three cups of water to a boil in a saucepan. Place the palm nuts in the boiling water (they do not need to be covered by the water). Cover and cook the palm nuts for a few minutes, until the skins begin to come off.
2
Drain the water from the pan. Use a potato masher (or a mortar and pestle) to crush the palm nuts into a pulp.
3
Combine the palm nut pulp with one to two quarts (or liters) of cold water. Stir. Squeeze the palm nuts with your hands to remove all the fruit and oil from the palm nuts.
4
Press the pulp through a strainer into the saucepan (rinse it first). Discard the nut skins and kernels that remain in the strainer. You might want to strain it twice, to remove all the nut kernels and bits of skin, and to make sure all the oil and fruit end up in the saucepan. Heat the pulp to a low boil, stir often, and cook until the sauce is thickened (maybe an hour). Once the sauce is heated, other ingredients can be added to make the dishes below.
Ingredients
100 fresh, ripe, palm nuts (available only in the tropics)
Directions
1
Bring two or three cups of water to a boil in a saucepan. Place the palm nuts in the boiling water (they do not need to be covered by the water). Cover and cook the palm nuts for a few minutes, until the skins begin to come off.
2
Drain the water from the pan. Use a potato masher (or a mortar and pestle) to crush the palm nuts into a pulp.
3
Combine the palm nut pulp with one to two quarts (or liters) of cold water. Stir. Squeeze the palm nuts with your hands to remove all the fruit and oil from the palm nuts.
4
Press the pulp through a strainer into the saucepan (rinse it first). Discard the nut skins and kernels that remain in the strainer. You might want to strain it twice, to remove all the nut kernels and bits of skin, and to make sure all the oil and fruit end up in the saucepan. Heat the pulp to a low boil, stir often, and cook until the sauce is thickened (maybe an hour). Once the sauce is heated, other ingredients can be added to make the dishes below.
Palm butter may be made in large quantities and may be frozen for use later.
Beef and Chicken in Palm Butter Sauce
A typical Western African combination.
Ingredients
- 1 pound chicken, cut into bite-sized pieces
- 1 to 2 pounds beef for stew (or other stew meat), cut into bite-sized pieces
- salt, pepper, hot pepper (to taste)
- chile pepper, finely chopped (optional)
- 4 cups of plam butter (recipe above) — or — canned Palm Soup base (also called “Sauce Graine” or “Noix de Palme”)
- 1 onion, finely chopped
Instructions
- Season the chicken and beef with salt, pepper and chile pepper and allow to stand for an hour or two.
- Combine all ingredients except the fresh fish or shrimp in a large saucepan. Cook over a low to medium heat, stirring regularly, until chicken and beef are done and sauce is thick (about an hour). Add the remaining fresh fish and shrimp and cook for several minutes more. Add water, broth or stock if necessary. Stir before serving; the red palm oil tends to separate from the sauce (Some cooks prefer to remove some or most of this red oil before serving).
- Serve with Rice or Fufu.
Chicken and Seafood in Palm Butter Sauce
Another typical Western African combination.
Ingredients
- 1 pound chicken, cut into bite-sized pieces
- salt, pepper (to taste)
- chile pepper, finely chopped (optional)
- 4cups of palm butter (recipe above) — or — canned Palm Soup base (also called “Sauce Graine” or “Noix de Palme”)
- 1 pound dried or salted cod, soaked in water and cleaned
- 1onion, finely chopped
- 1cup shrimp or prawns (dried or fresh) (optional)
- 2fresh herrings or other small fish (optional)
- 1 cup crab meat (optional)
Instructions
- Season the chicken with salt, pepper and chile pepper and allow to stand for an hour or two.
- Combine all ingredients except the fresh fish or shrimp in a large saucepan. Cook over a low to medium heat, stirring regularly, until chicken is done and sauce is thick (about an hour). Add the remaining fresh fish and shrimp and cook for several minutes more. Add water, broth or stock if necessary.
- Serve with Rice or Fufu.
Seafood in Palm Butter Sauce
Yet another typical Western African combination.
Ingredients
- 4 cups of palm butter (recipe above) — or — canned Palm Soup base (also called “Sauce Graine” or “Noix de Palme”)
- 1 pound dried or salted cod (or any dried or salted fish), soaked in water and cleaned
- 1 pound fresh fish: whole, fillets, or steaks
- 4 to 6 cups shrimp or prawns (dried or fresh) (optional)
- 2 fresh herrings or other small fish (optional)
- 2 to 4 cups crab meat (optional)
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- chile pepper, finely chopped (optional)
- salt, pepper (to taste)
Instructions
For a new trade had started to develop
Maryse Condé
In Segu (New York: Viking Press, 1987), Maryse Condé describes the palm oil trade in the late 19th century.
For a new trade had started to develop, parallel to the traffic in slaves, and it was already making fortunes for merchants on the Gold Coast and especially on the “oil rivers.”* The commodity they dealt in was palm oil.
Now Malobali could be seen taking droves of slaves out of the town to the palm groves and supervising their work. This consisted of climbing up the trees tied to a rope and carrying an axe between their teeth; then knocking down bunches of nuts and either loading them into canoes, or carrying them overland in baskets.
… he was getting rich with the palm nuts José Domingos let him have in exchange for his services, for he sold them to women who crushed the kernals to make red oil. Two Frenchmen, the Régis brothers, had recently arrived in the town, and talked of converting the fort into a private trading post. Oil could be stored there and sent to Marseilles, a town in France, to be made into soap and machine oil. In the long run it would be more lucrative than the slave trade.
*Name given to the water courses of the then-uncharted Niger delta.
(Part Three: A Fruitless Death)
The art of making palm-butter
Joseph H. Reading
Joseph H. Reading‘s The Ogowe Band: A Narrative of African Travel (Reading & Company, Publishers, Philadelphia, 1019 Cherry Street, 1890) is a travel diary which describes a tour of the towns, trading posts, and Christian missions on the Atlantic coast of Africa. The book describes Christian missionaries making “palm-butter” which is similar to nyembwe sauce:
[at the Bolando mission on the Benita river]
… the [American] girls were initiated into the art of making palm-butter, for the manufacture of which Mrs. DeHeer [Mr. and Mrs. DeHeer were the missionaries in charge of the Bolando mission] has an enviable reputation. The bright scarlet nuts are boiled to soften them somewhat, pounded in a mortar to mash up the woody pulp, strained through a cloth, and the yellow liquid boiled to evaporate the excess of water, and then thickened with flour and seasoned with Chilli peppers. The palm-butter thus made is of a rich brown color, and has the consistency of apple-butter; it is used as a sauce or gravy on rice, bread-fruit, or any farinaceous food. It differs from the usual palm-chop in that it contains no oil or meat, and in being thickened with flour.
More about Palm Butter Soup in the Rare Recipes pages: