achu soup with yellow sauce

Achu is a smooth paste of boiled, pounded cocoyams, or taro, served with a yellow sauce in Cameroon. It is associated with communities in the North West region and is also eaten by Bamileke communities in the West. The sauce combines palm oil, meat stock and a ground spice mixture, with kanwa or a plant-derived alkaline ingredient called nikki helping the oil and liquid form an emulsion.^[1][2]

The cooked cocoyams are peeled while warm and pounded into a paste; unripe bananas may be included. The sauce is mixed by repeatedly pouring or scooping it, rather than simmering it as a stew, and a blender is used in some home preparations. Beef, skin, tripe, smoked or fried fish and mushrooms can accompany it. For serving, the cocoyam paste is shaped into a mound with a hollow that holds the sauce, and diners take pieces of the paste with their fingers.^[1]