September 7 - African Meat Stew With Peanut Butter

African beef stew with peanut butter is popularly known as Maffe. It is a basic African stew with ground peanuts (or creamy peanut butter). You can pretty much use any meat, like pork, goat meat or chicken.

The sauce has a subtle sweet taste that the kids enjoyed. I used the Jif Chunky Peanut Butter so the soup has chunky bits of peanuts.

African Peanut Butter Beef Stew

Ingredients
2 cups water
2 Knorr beef bullion
1 cup Jif chunky peanut butter
1/4 cup olive oil
1 large Vidalia (sweet) onion, minced
6 cloves garlic, minced
4 lbs beef chuck, cut for stew
2 tbsp salt
1 tsp pepper
3 medium sized carrots, cut 1" thick
2 green bell pepper, cut in 1" squares
1 tsp fresh thyme leaves
3 bay leaves


Cooking Time (2 hours)
In a small pot, boil 2 cups of water and melt together the beef bullion and peanut butter.
Set aside.
In a large casserole, heat the olive oil in medium heat.
Saute the garlic and onion for 5 minutes.
Season the beef with salt and pepper.
Add the beef and cook for about 20 minutes, in high heat.
Note that since the beef will produce a lot of liquid, the beef will not get browned.
Add the peanut butter mixture.
Add the tomatoes, carrots, green bell pepper, thyme and bay leaves.
Mix well.
Simmer the stew for 90 minutes or until the meat is tender.
Serve warm with white rice.