Mafé (Peanut Stew)--Cook-Off 28

[Chris Amirault]

Welcome to this second anniversary eGullet Recipe Cook-Off! Click here for the Cook-Off index.

A click on that index shows that, while the Cook-Offs have ventured throughout the globe, but they've never stopped in Africa. One could say we've passed through -- gumbo, for example, is widely acknowledged to have roots in Africa, among other places. So, for the first Cook-Off rooted in African cuisine, we'll be cooking up mafé, otherwise known as peanut or groundnut stew.

Mafé is a traditional west African dish that can be found in the kitchens of Senegal and Mali. It's often served with a starch of some sort (rice, most often) to soak up the nutty stew juices, or, alternately, the starch is part of the stew itself, resulting in a drier braise. While there are a few mentions of mafé in eG Forums, there are no discussions of actually preparing it that I can find except this brief post by yours truly. There are a few recipes elsewhere, including this stew-like one and this more braise-y one, both of which are from the Food Network.

Mafé is a forgiving cold-weather dish, and one that, like most stews, benefits from reheating (read: swell as leftovers). I'm convinced that mafé is one of the great one-pot dishes in global cuisine, built on a solid base of sautéed onions, peanut-thickened stock, and hearty meat. Like other classics such as gumbo, cassoulet, and bibimbap, it affords tremendous variation within those guides; it would be hard to find very many vegetables that haven't made an appearance in a mafé pot somewhere, and there are lots of possibilities concerning herbs and spices. (I like to increase the heat quite a bit with cayenne, which I think plays off the silk of the nut oil just perfectly, for example.)

Finally, it's a pleasant surprise if you've never had a savory peanut dish before, and kids in particular tend to think it is the bee's knees. The kitchen fills with a heady aroma -- browned onion, ground peanuts -- that's hard to describe and resist.

So: who's up for mafé?

[snowangel]

Hmmm. I'm thinking a vehicle for venison, which not traditional, might just take to this preparation.

So, how heretic is it to use Skippy's super chrunch (preference of the masses at the Fahning house hold)?

Spices? What are suggestions, keeping in mind that we do like things on the zippy side.

Chris, as many of us enter a holiday season, this seems like a perfect dish. So, you don't get to it that night, tomorrow it will reheat beautifully!

[Milagai]

Hey: we make this very frequently.

Recipe from Sundays at Moosewood Restaurant: Ethnic

and Regional Recipes.

It's called West African Peanut Stew there,

and it's very like the links you posted; only sans meat.

I've tweaked it as usual to up the spices to suit

our family - Moosewood recipes on their own

are dreadfully bland.

More or less, what we make is:

1. Saute onions, grated ginger, and cayenne in hot oil; a

touch of cinnamon won't go amiss.....

2. Add diced sweetish veggies (e.g. carrots, sweet potatoes, etc.)

and water, and simmer till veggies are totally cooked.

3. Add tomato puree and simmer.

4. Puree unless you're OK with veggie cubes.

5. Add some green peas if liked, and salt to taste.

7. Add hunks of creamy peanut butter and mix thoroughly

and simmer.

8. Sprinkle a fair amount of fresh chives, chopped.

Done.

We love this stuff, kids, adults and all...

Milagai

[Chris Amirault]

That looks great, Milagai -- and I've never seen chives before, but that makes a lot of sense to me.

Susan, the two links above have a few examples on the spices. I agree with Milagai about the cinnamon, and would also say that thyme, allspice, clove, bay, and cumin -- in the appropriate combinations -- would work. Fiddle, please, and report back.

Meanwhile, I have seen a few recipes that call specifically for chunky peanut butter, and the processing that produces brands like Skippy tends to make the stew creamier.

[John S.]

Hey:  we make this very frequently. 

1.  Saute onions, grated ginger, and cayenne in hot oil; a

touch of cinnamon won't go amiss.....

2.  Add diced sweetish veggies (e.g. carrots, sweet potatoes, etc.)

and water, and simmer till veggies are totally cooked.

3.  Add tomato puree and simmer. 

4.  Puree unless you're OK with veggie cubes.

5.  Add some green peas if liked, and salt to taste.

7.  Add hunks of creamy peanut butter and mix thoroughly

and simmer. 

8.  Sprinkle a fair amount of fresh chives, chopped.

Milagai

←

That sounds like a great recipe. I'll try it right around Chrtistmas and report back. BTW, would a few dried bird'seye chiles help for those of us who like a lot of spice? Chris thanks for creating this thread!

John S.

[ChryZ]

Sounds great! I'm in and already reading up.

[Chris Amirault]

Bird chiles work just fine, as would habaneros. I wouldn't worry too much about blistering out all of the other subtleties with those two, as they tend to sit above the other flavors. Something like and ancho, however, wouldn't seem to work as well, as it would get a bit muddy in there -- but who knows?

[Jensen]

My sister brought a really great recipe for groundnut stew with her when she moved back to Canada from Liberia. Perhaps I should ask her for it...

[Ktepi]

I happened to look at eGullet before deciding what dinner would be (a grilled cheese sandwich was a frontrunner), so on the stove I now have:

Chopped turkey breast

Minced fresh ginger

Diced piri piri chiles

Peeled chopped garnet yams

1/2 link smoked chaurice sausage

a cup or so of shredded beet greens

Smuckers Natural peanut butter (chunky)

turkey stock

allspice, cumin, ground Tabasco chile, black pepper, salt

I'm out of: cinnamon, tomato, onion, garlic. Almost used Peppadews instead of the piri piris.

Normally I'd use dark meat instead of white, but the week before Thanksgiving I had made confit with the thighs and wings, stock with the drumsticks and carcass, and had frozen the breast meat -- so it's what I had on hand. The chaurice ... well, I got my annual Poche's order the other day and happened to have half a link in the fridge. It makes it sound a bit like peanut gumbo, which is why I resisted the urge to add okra or bay leaves.

[snowangel]

So, just what do we suppose a smoked poultry stock would do to this?

[Chris Amirault]

Jensen, I really do hope you'll grab that recipe and share it with us.

Susan, I think that's an excellent question. Time to take one for the team...?

[edsel]

Marcus Samuelsson has a recipe for Chicken-Peanut Stew in his new book Soul of a New Cuisine. He learned about the stew from a Malian dishwasher at Aquavit, so I guess it's a sort of mafé.

Ingredients are:

onion

carrot

chilies

ginger

bay

pepper

chicken

peanuts

potatoes

tomatoes

spinach

I've made creamy / spicy peanut soup before, but nothing quite so elaborate.

Samuelsson's recipe sounds interesting to me - maybe I'll try to join in on this cook-off.

[Chris Amirault]

I think that ain't sort of mafé, edsel. Looks like the real deal.

[snowangel]

Advice needed on chilies. Reference above to piri piri chilies, which I know nothing about.

[Chris Amirault]

They're a version of bird chiles: click.

[Jensen]

Jensen, I really do hope you'll grab that recipe and share it with us.

←

I've sent my sister an email, asking if she would send it to me.

In the meantime, I've got a pantry version of it on the stove right now. I probably won't take a picture of it because it kind of looks like cat sick...

[Jensen]

Okay, the official recipe, directly from Liberia:

Liberian Peanut "Soup"

Place washed chicken (I use drum sticks) in a bowl and toss with (small) seasoning salt. Heat palm oil in a large pot (like soup pot) at high heat and brown the chicken, do in small quantities. Set browned chicken aside.

Chop one onion and 5 small hot red chili peppers (they are the real little skinny ones. This is hot so reduce to taste or don't put in all the seeds that is the hot part.)

In the same oil as chicken was browned in, add the onions and chilies. Saute. Then add 3 cups of water, 3 boullion cubes, 1 tbsp. of tomato paste and 4 tbsp. ground peanuts (can use peanut butter). Return the chicken to the soup mixture and heat through. The dish is ready when the chicken is well cooked, falling off the bone and the sauce is well reduced.

Just a side note.

I like the "potato gravy" version better.

It is the same but with the chicken you add potato quarters (as many as you think - cause they are the best part). and you leave out the ground peanuts.

Oh ya, you are supposed to cook it over an open fire and serve with rice.

[ChryZ]

Advice needed on chilies.  Reference above to piri piri chilies, which I know nothing about.

←

I used piripiri in the past and they're very hot. Twice as hot as cayenne, half as hot as habanero.

Pequin might be a very decent option.

[suzilightning]

adapted a recipe we had done before from Dr. Jessica Harris for a West African Sweet Potato and Red Bean Stew.

5 chicken drumsticks

sweet onion ( about 2) chopped

4 cloves garlic, sliced

5 sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed

1 can red beans, drained and rinsed(didn't have time to cook my own)

2 cups vegetable broth

2 small red bell peppers, seeded and chopped

small knob ginger, peeled and grated - maybe 1-2 tsp

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp white pepper

1 tsp garam masala

1 can diced tomatoes

3 poblano chiles, roasted, peeled and seeded, diced

3 Tbsp peanut butter

chopped dry-roasted peanuts

lime wedges

Roast the halved, seeded poblanos in a hot oven(450-500) for about 15 minutes. Put into a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and set aside to steam. After about 10 minutes peel and chop roughly.

Season chicken with salt and pepper. Sear in Dutch oven in a filming of neutral oil(i used Enova). Remove from Dutch oven to a plate. Add 1 tsp. more oil and add onions. Cook for about 3 minutes. Add garlic and cook for several minutes more, until tender. Add sweet potatoes and bell peppers. Stir and cook for another minute or two. Add the spices - salt, white pepper and cumin(I didn't have any so I substitued the garam masala I did have). Stir until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Return the chicken to the pot, nestling it into the vegetables. Add the vegetable broth, ginger, and poblano chiles. Bring to a boil then lower to a bare simmer for about 1 hour. Pinch the meat from the bones of the chicken and discard the bones. Add the red beans. Remove about a cup of the liquid from the stew and whisk in the peanut butter. Return the mixture to the stew and incorporate. Return to the heat. Serve alone garnished with chopped dry-roasted peanuts and lime wedges alone or over rice.

dinner tonight and for tomorrow for us.

Edited December 11, 2006 by suzilightning (log)

[ChryZ]

I've studied like 10 recipes and this is my take on the dish:

Mafé / Groundnut Stew / Peanut Stew

ingredients

6 X chicken breast (cubed)

2 X bay leave

3 X onions (diced)

9 X dried chiles (roasted, ground)

8 X green beans (topped, tailed and halved)

1 X sweet potato (chunk'd)

3 X carrots (chunk'd)

1 X turnip (chunk'd)

3 X celery stalk (chopped)

400 G skinned tomatoes in their juice (14 oz)

1 CUP peanuts (fresh/raw, roasted, ground)

2 CUP chicken stock

2 TBSP tyhme

4 TBSP peanut oil

1 TBSP butter

prep work first

(so I made fresh peanut butter for the very first time ... accidentally, hehe)

the stew itself was pretty straight forwards, browned the chicken in peanut oil and butter, sauted onions/celery/carrots, added tomatoes, then chicken stock, then turnip chunks, then ground peanut paste, then tyhme, then sweet potato and green beans and simmered it until done (~60 min in total)

served with a mix of wild and long grain rice

final thoughts on the dish: the ground nuts really add a nice thick, creamy, nuttiness (without an overly strong peanutty flavour!) and the thyme really cuts right through it in a very refreshing way, truely delicious ... instant classic indeed, highly recommendable

regarding the seasoning, I found these combinations:

-bay leave, thyme

-cumin, cinnamon, cloves, coriander

-cumin, cinnamon, clove, bay leave, thyme, allspice

-cinnamon, paprika

for my first try I wanted to keep it as simple as possible, maybe I'll toy around with another combo next time, but I'm not really sure about the other ones: cumin, cinnamon, cloves are all very earthy and they might dull down the dish too much, but I might be wrong

Edited December 12, 2006 by ChryZ (log)

[Domestic Goddess]

This thread makes me think of our own peanut stew in the Philippines - Kare kare.

We don't put any spices in it like cumin, chilis, thyme, etc. nor tomato sauce. The veggies in kare-kare usually include banana heart, long string beans, eggplants and bok choy. For a detailed recipe, I am linking a fellow Filipino food blogger - Kare Kare

[ianpollitt]

This dish sounds similar to African Chicken, which I think used to be a popular dish in Macau. I have a recipe at home which uses pheasant by Clarissa Dickson-Wright (British TV chef). Absolutely delicious, but very rich so I was intending trying it with chicken instead. Seems to me from all your recipes that this would work better - and I'll try thyme with it, thanks for the recommendation.

I'll find the recipe if anyone's interested, but it's pretty simple, involving onions, tinned tomatoes, chillies, and crunchy peanut butter.

[Mar Calpena]

I traveled around Senegal in the summer of 2005 -the photo in my avatar was taken in Ziguinchor- and Mafe was one of the things we encountered most often. It was always served (at least, to us) over rice and had no carrots in it. Meat was goat or lamb. Most ingredients were undistinguishable once they had been cooked for quite a while, and definitely the peanut flavour was not a side note but central to the dish.

This post brought memories of Thie Bou Dien (fish cooked over rice with root vegetables) and Poulet Yassa (grilled and served with lemon, pepper and onions). Onions seemed to be a central part of Senegalese food. An onion omelet was the most common breakfast, and they seemed to pop in every other dish.

Edited for annoying typos.

Edited December 13, 2006 by Mar Calpena (log)

[ChryZ]

I traveled around Senegal in the summer of 2005 -the photo in my avatar was taken in Ziguinchor- and Mafe was one of the things we encountered most often. It was always served (at least, to us) over rice and had no carrots in it. Meat was goat or lamb. Most ingredients were undistinguishable once they had been cooked for quite a while, and definitely the peanut flavour was not a side note but central to the dish.

←

Thanks for your insights, they are hard to come by. I guess my next take is going to be with lamb, less tomatoes (I think, they've mellowed the peanut flavour) and no carrots.

[suzilightning]

I traveled around Senegal in the summer of 2005 -the photo in my avatar was taken in Ziguinchor- and Mafe was one of the things we encountered most often. It was always served (at least, to us) over rice and had no carrots in it. Meat was goat or lamb. Most ingredients were undistinguishable once they had been cooked for quite a while, and definitely the peanut flavour was not a side note but central to the dish.

←

Thanks for your insights, they are hard to come by. I guess my next take is going to be with lamb, less tomatoes (I think, they've mellowed the peanut flavour) and no carrots.

←

i'm going for the goat next time .... just won't tell johnnybird.