Mpuh Fish (Fish in Plantain Pudding)
Mpuh fish is a Central African dish consisting of a catfish steak in plantain batter wrapped in a banana leaf then steamed. The plantain batter firms up into almost a tamale like consistency with the whole catfish steak in the center. Plus it gets the earthy flavor from the banana leaf. I’ve been wanting to make this dish for quite a while. It has a lot of steps. You could say that this is a complete pain in the ass to make. But, holy shitballs is it good.In Cameroon, they typically use catfish. You can also use snapper, tilapia, striped bass, or mackerel. I purchased a whole cleaned catfish for only $3.99lb. So it’s fairly inexpensive considering you yield 4 servings. If you are unable to find njansa, country onion spice, or African nutmeg, you can substitute garlic and onion powder. My local Asian market has a huge African section, so I was able to find them there.
Servings: 4
Equipment
- Steam pot
- blender
- twine
Ingredients
- 1/2 medium onion
- 1/2 small bell pepper
- 2 tbsp njansa
- 2 tbsp country onion spice
- 1/4 cup water
- 1 tsp African nutmeg
- 1 cup plantain flour
- 2 cups warm water
- 3 tbsp palm oil
- 1 tbsp chicken bouillon
- 3 lbs catfish
- banana leaves heated under a broiler or open flame for pliability
Instructions
- Add the onion, bell pepper, njansa, country onion spice, African nutmeg, and a 1/4 cup of water in a blender. Purée.
- Add the purée to the plantain flour, palm oil, warm water, and chicken bouillon. The consistency should be similar to pancake batter.
- Rinse the whole catfish under warm water quickly to wash away any slime.
- Cut into 4 steaks and add to the plantain batter.
- Place a catfish steak in the center of the banana leaf with a scoop or two of the plantain batter.
- Wrap and tie up, making sure that none of the batter pours out.
- Do the same to the other catfish steaks.
- Place the banana leaf packages in a steamer pot. Steam over high heat for an hour, making sure that there is always enough water in the pot. Let rest for 20 minutes before serving.
Plantain Pudding
- There’s a good chance that you will have extra plantain batter. You can portion out the batter into ramekins like so.
- Add them to a steamer pot. Steam for 25 minutes.
- Let rest for 10 minutes before serving.
