I enjoyed my previous semester of school thanks to my French class. We cooked French dishes in most of my classes hence it made me always look forward to Mondays. On this particular day we were assigned dishes from Cameroon. I decided to do a dessert (salad).

The moment I saw pineapple on the recipe’s title, my taste buds started to jive in jubilation. I always go bananas just by the mention of pineapples thus really enjoyed making the salad.  The thing that stood out for me was the coconut milk. I have never used it before in fruit salad plus I was not sure I would find it especially at our local kiosks in Mavoko (no pun intended). I happen to have bought the last can.

I needed to boil the coconut milk until it became thick. The more it boiled the more it lessen therefore I decided to switch off the gas and let it cool. Voila! It was finally thick. I made the rest of the salad and used party cups as it was the most convinient for me at the time and it made it easy to make the fruit layers. I crushed my groundnuts and sprinkled them on the salad and thereafter poured the coconut milk. Since I was preparing them at night, I covered the cups with foil and put them in the fridge.

The first person to taste the salad was our lecturer. My fingers were crossed as I did not know what she would say. Personally, I had not tasted it. My heart was beating like the drums of West Africa (haha I had to use that phrase, I remember how it would earn us more marks in our composition writing back in Primary School). I was happy she found it unique so did the class.

OH HAIL THE RECIPE!

Ingredients

• 2 firm ripe bananas, peeled and sliced
• 2 firm ripe tomatoes, sliced
• 1 small pineapple, peeled and sliced
• 1 avocado, peeled, pitted, and sliced
• 1 tablespoon roasted peanuts, ground
• 1 can coconut milk

Procedure

1. Boil the coconut milk until it thickens.
2. Set it aside to cool.
3. Pile the bananas, tomatoes, pineapple, and avocado alternately in layers in individual glass dishes.
4. Top with chopped peanuts and the thickened coconut milk.
5. Serve cold.

Serves 4 to 6.