nominally-African vegetarian stew

[cellio]

This was published in the local newspaper recently and was attributed to Nava Atlas. I made it tonight and it was really tasty. I'm paraphrasing the recipe 'cause I'm lazy.

West African Peanut Stew

• 1.5T light olive oil
• 1 large red onion, chopped
• 3-4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2C shredded green cabbage
• 2 medium-to-large sweet potatoes, peeled, diced (0.5")
• 16oz can diced tomatoes, undrained
• 1t grated fresh ginger, or to taste
• 3C water
• 10oz package frozen okra, thawed
• 0.5C natural-style smooth peanut butter
• 0.25t cayenne pepper or 0.5t crushed red pepper, or to taste
• salt to taste

In a deep stir-fry pan heat oil and saute onion and garlic over medium heat until golden.

Add cabbage, potatoes, tomatoes, ginger, water. Simmer until veggies are nearly tender, approx 15 minutes.

Add okra, then stir in peanut butter a little at a time until it melts into broth. Stir in cayenne. Cover, simmer until everything is tender, approx 10 minutes. (If needed, add a bit more water -- but the stew should be thick.)

Season with salt. Serve over rice. Garnish with peanuts and green onions.

My notes

Yummy!

I am skeptical that you can cook a red onion until golden. :-)

Okra is one of those vegetables that I tend to have a strong negative reaction to (a bad gumbo experience during my formative years, perhaps?), and I considered substituting for it, but I didn't know what would be comparable. (Later, I noticed that she suggests green beans, though she recommends the okra.) So I grudgingly used okra, and it actually tasted good in this. Wow. This might be a case of "spice it enough and it doesn't matter what it started life as", but whatever.

The store was out of sweet potatoes, so I used a large yam. I figure the odds are 50-50 that that's what was meant anyway, but I think I would prefer sweet potato next time. The cabbage, not too surprisingly, pretty much dissolved into the sauce.

I'm out of cayenne pepper (oops!), so used the crushed red peppers. In the matter of spices I tend to interpret "or to taste" as "double it", but this was too much in the case of the peppers and ginger. My pepper was freshly bought and the ginger root was unusually aromatic (very fresh?), so that probably made the difference. Mind, I liked the spicing, but it was too much for Dani, and wasn't what I was aiming for.

Comments

[ichur72.livejournal.com]

On a completely different note, I know that many people don't care for okra, but in my experience, cooking time makes a big difference. If you boil okra for too long, it gets soooo slimy. But if you don't cook it for long -- and that's what the recipe seems to call for -- the texture is much more agreeable. You can also cut down on the slime if you bread the okra and fry it (southern-style -- mmm). Baking also helps. There a dish I like to make that uses cubed eggplant, mushrooms, diced sauted onions and okra in tomato sauce (spice it with salt, cinnamon, allspice and cloves) over chicken. It works best if you mix the tomato sauce, eggplant, onions and mushrooms and pour the mixture over the chicken and then distribute the okra over the top. As it bakes, the okra gets browned and crispy, and it ends up tasting wonderful. No slime. :)

[cellio]

Thanks for the okra advice. My past impression has in fact been "eww, slimy", but I didn't realize until last night that it doesn't have to be that way. (And on reflection, it's possible that I've encountered it in non-slimy form and not recognized it.)

As it bakes, the okra gets browned and crispy, and it ends up tasting wonderful.

Sounds yummy!

[zare-k.livejournal.com]

I found my favorite okra preparation in a South Indian restaurant where (my speculation) it was braised with a red chili-based sauce. Yum.