Achu Spice Blend (Cameroonian Achu Yellow Soup) is a traditional Cameroonian recipe for a classic blend of native spices used to flavour achu yellow soup. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic Cameroonian version of: Achu Spice Blend.
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After a few false starts I've finally tracked down a decent recipe for Cameroon achu spices. This is a very variable spice blend with often a very large number of ingredients, sometimes conflated with other Cameroonian spice blends like zehfa/mendak/Tshili and Ntshop. Most of the spices listed are either generally available or available from specialist vendors, so you should be able to prepare your own spice blend. You will need a strong spice grinder as a few of the ingredients are tough and woody.
This, of course, is the classic Cameroonian spice blend used in flavouring achu and yellow soup.
Ingredients:
3 Pebbe (Calabash Nutmegs)
2 Alligator Peppers
1 tsp grains of paradise
6 Ethiopian Peppers (Senegal Pepper/grains of Selim/Xylopia ethiopica seeds)
1 tsp Black Peppercorns
3 Lom nkak, Country Onions (rondelles du cameroun/dried fruit of Afrostyrax lepidophyllus)
3 African Oil Bean Seeds (seeds of Pentaclethra macrophylla)
2 Bambara Groundnuts
1/2 tsp pebe (Guinea peppers)
2 dried Sickle Bush (Dichrostachys cinerea) seed pods
2 Pieces of Sweet Root (the dried stems of Mondia whitei)
2 dried root pieces of Country Carrot (Mondia whitei) (the size of an Index Finger)
2 Thumb-sized Pieces of Four Corner Spice (Esesè/essisang, Aidan fruit, the fruit pod of Tetrapleura tetraptera)
1 tsp djangsang (Njansang) Ndjansan (fermented and smoked locust beans)
4 dried and smoked Cameroon pepper (local chillies)
4 dried yellow Cameroon peppers (local yellow chillies)
2 sô (dried African bird's eye chillies)
Method:
Begin by grinding the sweet root, aidan fruit and bambara groundnuts to a powder. Pass through a fine-meshed sieve to remove any un-ground tough bits. Turn the powder into a bowl.
In a dry frying pan, separately toast the alligator pepper seeds, grains of paradise, Ethiopian peppers, black peppercorns, country onions, sickle bush seed pods, Guinea peppers and the smoked Cameroon peppers, yellow cameroon peppers and dried African birds' eye chillies for between 90 seconds and 2 minutes, until aromatic (take care they do not burn).
Once a spice is toasted, turn out onto a plate to cool as you toast the next spice. Set the toasted spices aside to cool.
In the meantime, crush the calabash nutmegs in a mortar then grind to a powder in a spice grinder. Pass through a fine-meshed sieve and discard any large pieces.
Add the toasted spices to your spice grinder and render to a powder. Combine the ground calabash nutmegs and ground toasted spices with the ground toasted spices, stirring well to combine. Spoon to an air-tight jar and store in a cool, dark, cupboard. Separately grind the oil bean seeds and Ndjansan (fermented and smoked locust beans).
The spice blend will keep for up to 3 months.
Optional additions to the spice blend include: Nga'lomsi, dried root of Manodora mystica; Messep dried wild African blue basil and Lom Nkak the dried bark of Triumfetta pentandra.
