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10/30/2002 Archived Entry: "Beef and Root Vegetable Stew with Peanut Butter"

There are 300 recipes in Real Stew by Clifford A. Wright, which, in Clifford’s usual thorough way, is a wonderfully diverse international collection with an emphasis on the many cuisines around the Mediterranean.

This recipe is from Senegal and it intrigued me on several counts:

1. I love peanut butter and hot pepper together.

2. With the first soft frost hitting the city, I was ready to eat the root vegetables of fall.

3. Brooklyn has a small community of Senegalese and I thought eating one of their dishes might teach me something about them – like do I want to try one of their restaurants.

Beef and Root Vegetable Stew
with Peanut Butter from Senegal
Serves 4 to 6

Arthur’s Two Cents: I loved the flavor of the stew, but, by way of warning, it is mushy and sloppy. The vegetables do not remain entirely distinct.

There are two problems with the recipe as written. First, there is not enough water. I was willing to accept the one cup measure at the beginning, even though it provided only steam to cook the vegetables, but when I got to the point where you have to thicken the sauce with peanut butter, there was very little liquid to extract from the pot. I added a cup of water at the end to correct this. Next time I make the dish – and I think I will because the flavor is so sweet-hot-nutty and nuanced – I’m sure I will start it out with three cups of water. Even so, this is not a stew with a lot of gravy and I don’t think it is meant to be.

The other problem is the timing: I’m sure Clifford meant to write that the stew should cook for a total of 2 1/2 hours – an hour before the vegetables and an hour and half after the vegetables – but that’ not how it reads.

1/4 cup peanut oil
1 medium-sized onion, chopped
1 pound boneless stew beef, trimmed of any large pieces of
fat and cut into 1-inch ubes
3 ounces tomato paste (half a 6-ounce jar)
1 cup water
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste (I used
1 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper)
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1 small head green cabbage (about 1 pound), damaged outer
leaves discarded, cored, and cut into 8 wedges
1 large boiling potato, peeled and quartered
3 small turnips, peeled
1 large sweet potato, peeled and quartered
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter

In a large casserole or Dutch oven, heat the peanut oil over medium-high heat. Cook the onions until translucent, stirring, about 5 minutes. Add the beef and, once it turned color, add the tomato paste, water, cayenne, salt and black pepper, and thyme. Reduce the heat to low, and cook for 1 hour.

Add the cabbage, potato, turnips, and sweet potato. Cover and cook until tender, 2 to 2 1/2 hours. (In fact, it should read from 1 to 1 1/2 hours additional.) Remove about 1/2 cup of the liquid and stir in the peanut butter in a small bowl. Pour this sauce over the meat and cook for 5 more minutes. Serve over plain rice.