Palm fruit, palm nut, palm oil

From the red palm tree, Elaeis guineensis; when the fruit/nuts are cooked and strained, the liquid is called “palm fruit juice” or “palm fruit butter.” The palm oil rises to the top and may be skimmed off and used separately or stirred back into the juice. Fresh palm fruit is not available in the U.S. so we must content ourselves with imported canned cream of palm fruit concentrate. It is sold in African or many international markets, or can be ordered from online suppliers. Palm oil is recently becoming available at U.S. grocery stores in health food sections. A special Ewe-variety spice-infused palm oil is known as dzomi or zomi. (See recipe for Palm Nut Soup/Twi: Abε Nkwan)