Recipe: Burkina Faso’s Mafé: The Perfect Comfort Food for Chilly Winter Nights

Mafé is a stew that combines lamb, beef, or chicken with peanut butter. Also called Tigadegena locally, it’s a dish with many variations, but some of the 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.

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 look at using beef, vegetables, organic peanut butter, and other ingredients.

Stay with me!

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How to Make Burkina Faso’s Mafé 

Ingredients

• ½ cup of oil
• 1 tsp of salt
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 Maggi cubes
• 5 fresh tomatoes
• 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
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• ½ cup organic peanut butter
• 1 kilo of beef, cut into cubes
• 8 hot habanero peppers, whole
• 1 tsp fresh peeled ginger, minced

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Instructions

1. In a big pot, season your meat with salt, freshly cracked black pepper, paprika, chopped ginger, and garlic. If you have time to spare, marinate it for two hours.
2. 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. Take the meat out. 
3. Add the onion, garlic, and ginger and sauté for 2 minutes. 
4. Add chopped tomatoes, cumin, black pepper, coriander powder, and bay leaves, and stir to mix. 
5. Pour in the stock and add the meat back to the pot. 
6. Add the dried fish.
7. Add the vegetables and Maggi cubes and leave the mixture to boil for an hour. 
8. Stir in the peanut butter and reduce the heat. 
9. Allow the meat to boil until it’s cooked through and the sauce thickens. You can adjust how thick or thin you want your mafé by adding more broth to make it thin and more peanut butter to make it thick. 
10. In the last 15 minutes, add the hot peppers and spinach.
11. 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.

There are other variations, like chicken mafé or poulet mafé, which you can eat with rice. You can cook either of these recipes the same way as beef mafé. You just need to adjust the time and a few ingredients, like vegetables, according to your preferences. 

African Cooking with Estelle shares how to prepare mafé in this YouTube video. Estelle shares weekly videos on African cuisine. You can subscribe to her YouTube channel.

Burkina Faso’s Mafé

Burkina Faso

Sedi Djentuh

Mafé is a stew that combines lamb, beef, or chicken with peanut butter. Also called Tigadegena locally, it’s a dish with many variations, but some of the common ingredients are cabbage, chicken, onion, tomato, garlic, and root vegetables.

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Prep Time 2 hours hrs

Cook Time 1 hour hr 25 minutes mins

Total Time 3 hours hrs 25 minutes mins

Course Main Course

Cuisine African

Servings 4

Calories 451 kcal

Equipment

Cooking Pot

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• ½ cup of oil
• 1 tsp of salt
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 Maggi cubes
• 5 pcs fresh tomatoes
• 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
• 2 cloves of garlic minced
• ½ cup organic peanut butter
• 1 kilo of beef cut into cubes
• 8 hot habanero peppers whole
• 1 tsp fresh peeled ginger minced

Instructions

 

• In a big pot, season your meat 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. Take the meat out.
• 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 boil until it’s cooked through and the sauce thickens. You can adjust how thick or thin you want your mafé by adding more broth to make it thin and more peanut butter to make it thick.
• In the last 15 minutes, add the hot peppers and spinach.
• Season with salt and serve hot with rice.

Video

Nutrition

Serving: 4gCalories: 451kcalCarbohydrates: 27.2gProtein: 32.7gFat: 22gSaturated Fat: 5.3gPolyunsaturated Fat: 0.9gMonounsaturated Fat: 6.9gCholesterol: 85.3mgSodium: 906.7mgPotassium: 616.9mgFiber: 4.2gSugar: 5.2gVitamin A: 14.3IUVitamin C: 15.8mgCalcium: 4.3mgIron: 23mg

Keyword Beef Mafé, Chicken Mafé, Mafé

Côte d’Ivoire’s Kedjenou Chicken

Kedjenou Chicken is one of the main savory dishes in Côte d’Ivoire that you can prepare with a few vegetables, chicken or beef, and spices in a canari or tight pot. You can prepare it quickly while attending to other dishes without worrying about burning.

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