Mafé is a stew that combines lamb, beef, or chicken with peanut butter. It’s also called Tigadegena locally. Although the dish has many variations, some common ingredients are cabbage, chicken, onion, tomato, garlic, and root vegetables.
Originally from Mali’s Mandinka and Bambara tribes, mafé is a global favorite widely consumed throughout Burkina Faso and West Africa.
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In addition to cumin, paprika, turmeric, cumin seeds, and black pepper, you can add other ingredients, such as cinnamon, okra, carrots, hot peppers, and corn.
In this article, we’ll examine the use of beef, vegetables, organic peanut butter, and other ingredients.
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How to Make Burkina Faso’s Mafé
Equipments
- Wooden spoon
- Large pot
- Dutch oven
Ingredients
- ½ cup of vegetable oil or olive oil
- 1 tsp of salt
- 2 bay or thyme leaves
- 2 Maggi cubes
- 5 fresh tomatoes or tomato paste
- 5 small dried fish
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- ½ tsp black pepper
- 2 shallots, chopped
- 1 eggplant, chopped
- 1 cup of clean water
- 2 big onions, chopped
- 1 pound of fresh spinach
- ½ tsp coriander powder
- 2 large carrots, chopped
- 1 cup of vegetable stock or chicken broth
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- ½ cup organic peanut butter
- 1 kilo of beef, cut into cubes
- 8 hot habanero or scotch bonnet peppers, whole
- 1 tsp fresh peeled ginger, minced
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Instructions
- Season your meat in a large pot with salt, freshly cracked black pepper, paprika, chopped ginger, and garlic. If you have time to spare, marinate it for two hours.
- Heat oil and sear the meat pieces for 10 minutes until lightly browned on all sides. This gives them a nice color and adds flavor to the stew. Remove the meat.
- Add the onion, garlic, and ginger and sauté for 2 minutes.
- Add chopped tomatoes, cumin, black pepper, coriander powder, and bay leaves, and stir to mix.
- Pour in the stock and add the meat back to the pot.
- Add the dried fish.
- Add the vegetables and Maggi cubes and leave the mixture to boil for an hour.
- Stir in the peanut butter and reduce the heat.
- Allow the meat to simmer until it’s cooked, forming a thick peanut sauce. You can adjust the thickness of your mafé by adding more broth and peanut butter to make it thin.
- In the last 15 minutes, add the hot peppers and spinach.
- Season with salt and serve hot with rice.
What Can You Eat With Mafé?
Traditionally, you can serve this dish with white rice, tuwo, omo tuo, couscous, or sweet potatoes.
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Other variations, like chicken mafé or poulet mafé, can be eaten with rice. You can cook either of these recipes the same way as beef mafé. You must adjust the time and a few ingredients, like vegetables, according to your preferences.
In this YouTube video, African Cooking with Estelle demonstrates how to prepare mafé. Estelle posts weekly videos on African cuisine on her YouTube channel. You can subscribe to her channel.
Burkina Faso’s Mafé
Equipment
Ingredients
- ½ cup of vegetable oil or olive oil
- 1 tsp of salt
- 2 bay or thyme leaves
- 2 Maggi cubes
- 5 fresh tomatoes or tomato paste
- 5 small dried fish
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- ½ tsp black pepper
- 2 shallots chopped
- 1 eggplant chopped
- 1 cup of clean water
- 2 big onions chopped
- 1 pound of fresh spinach
- ½ tsp coriander powder
- 2 large carrots chopped
- 1 cup of vegetable stock or chicken broth
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- ½ cup organic peanut butter
- 1 kilo of beef cut into cubes
- 8 hot habanero or scotch bonnet peppers whole
- 1 tsp fresh peeled ginger minced
Instructions
- Season your meat in a large pot with salt, freshly cracked black pepper, paprika, chopped ginger, and garlic. If you have time to spare, marinate it for two hours.
- Heat oil and sear the meat pieces for 10 minutes until lightly browned on all sides. This gives them a nice color and adds flavor to the stew. Remove the meat.
- Add the onion, garlic, and ginger and sauté for 2 minutes.
- Add chopped tomatoes, cumin, black pepper, coriander powder, and bay leaves, and stir to mix.
- Pour in the stock and add the meat back to the pot.
- Add the dried fish.
- Add the vegetables and Maggi cubes and leave the mixture to boil for an hour.
- Stir in the peanut butter and reduce the heat.
- Allow the meat to simmer until it’s cooked, forming a thick peanut sauce. You can adjust the thickness of your mafé by adding more broth and peanut butter to make it thin.
- In the last 15 minutes, add the hot peppers and spinach.
- Season with salt and serve hot with rice.
Video
Nutrition
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