West Africa · Volume 02, The Cassava-and-Bitter-Leaf Belt
Groundnut stew
Sierra Leone, groundpea soup in Liberia
Illustration
- Time
- 1 hour
- Researched
- Researched from 133 sources in the brief
As tradition built it
Serves 6. About 1 hour.
Ingredients
The method as the tradition gives it, with the ingredients named. Quantities follow as we verify them, lead dishes first.
- 1 kg chicken or beef, in pieces
- 2 onions, chopped
- ginger, chopped
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 300 g groundnut paste or smooth peanut butter
- 700 ml stock
Method
- Cook the onion and ginger 5 to 10 minutes until soft but not browned.
- Cook the tomato paste with the onions briefly so it loses its raw taste.
- Add the stock, groundnut paste and the chicken or beef, using smooth rather than crunchy paste so the finished soup stays even rather than gritty.
- Boil 15 minutes, then a further 15 to 30 minutes, until oil visibly rises to the surface. This is the doneness cue, not a clock.
- Make it slightly more runny than you prefer at this stage: it thickens further as it cools.
What a modern chef changes
The emulsion break taken to Bradford's own extension of it, a second fat rebuilding the sauce rather than more peanut oil
Rung 4
Method
- Do not stop at the first oil separation. Rung 4 specifies pushing well past the point most home cooks call the sauce done.
- Rebuild with coconut milk rather than more groundnut paste or oil, as Bradford does with her beef short-rib. Coconut's medium-chain saturated fat reads cleaner than more peanut fat would, extending the sauce without making it heavier.