A little flavour of West Africa made simple for us lazy white folk!

My wife spent her young childhood in West Africa - firstly in Sierra Leone and subsequently in the delta area of Nigeria. Now the memories of someone who left the continent for England at the age of seven are very different to those of older folk. And Kathryn's memories are of small things - of the fence that grew into a hedge, the wild cat on the suitcase, the "bad snake" in the hotel room, and of floating down the river on a lilo to Abraka - then a small little town now a bustling university city! Among these memories are those of the cook pounding groundnuts (rather like the boy in this picture) and killing chickens!

From this West African experience comes this recipe for Groundnut Stew. It's no more a real African dish than my mum's lovely curry is an authentic South Asian experience! But it is really easy to make and quite delicious.

Groundnut Stew

Ingredients:

11/2 lbs of dead animal cubed or chopped (I use shin beef but any good beef, mutton or goat will do)
One large onion (roughly chopped)
2 oz butter (or equivalent in vegetable oil)
Couple of teaspoons mixed up ground cumin & coriander (optional)
Salt & ground black pepper
2 pts stock (I tend to use a good beef stock cube but any rich meat stock will work fine)
2 or 3 heaped tablespoons coarse peanut butter (you can of course get your ground nuts and pound them into an oily paste & mix with ghee if you prefer but peanut butter is quicker!)

Heat the oil and fry the onions until soft. Add the meat and seal. Add salt, pepper, cumin & coriander and mix well. Cover with the stock and simmer for about an hour or so (until the meat is tender - for some meat this can take longer of course). Make sure there is plenty of liquid - you may want to add a little more stock.

Mix in the peanut butter thoroughly and heat through. Serve with freshly boiled white rice or in bowls with bread or nachos.

Enjoy!

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