Mafe a West African Peanut Dish

Mafe is a traditional stew of the Wolof people from Senegal and Gambia.

If not using leftover meat saute the meat of your choice for about 5-10 minutes. Set the meat aside.

Heat oil ad saute 1/2 red onion minced,1.5 tbsp minced ginger, and 2 minced garlic cloves for 2 to 3 minutes. Add 2 tsp smoked tabasco sauce and a tbsp of paprika.

Add 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar, 3 tbsp tomato paste, 1 diced tomato, 1 cup chicken broth, 2 diced carrots , and 4 tbsp peanut butter. Simmer for 5 minutes stirring a little.

Add your meat. If using 2-3 cups diced leftover roasted chicken you need to simmer everything for about 10 minutes. If using non leftover meat simmer for about 30 -40 minutes until the meat is tender. Add water as necessary so that it keeps its stew like consistency. If you are making a vegetarian dish you only need to simmer for about 10-15 minutes depending on the type of veggies you are using.

Image coming soon. I just got so hungry that I forgot to take pictures! Good thing my roommate Jessie loves this dish and has taken up making it.

Roller Coasters

This is a relatively simple recipe for some fresh Vietnamese Spring Rolls, or roller coasters as Shander likes to call them. I swear getting him to call them Vietnamese Spring Rolls is almost as hard as teaching him to call Lizzie´s brother and dad his future brother-in-law and future father-in-law. He currently calls them his brother in waiting and father in waiting, something which Lizzie, Jessie, Katie, and I have been trying to correct with no success. 

Ingredients for the rolls:

• 1 lb. Chicken
• ½ cup Soy sauce
• 2 tbsp Sugar
• Pinch of Red pepper flakes or 1 small chilli
• Rice noodles
• Carrots, grated
• Cilantro
• Basil
• Rice paper
• ½ a bouillon cube

Ingredients for the sauce:

• 2 tbsp peanut butter
• 2 tbsp hoisin sauce
• 2 tbsp hot water
• Tsp garlic powder or a clove of minced garlic
• Pinch of red pepper flakes.

For the Chicken:

Cut the chicken into thin strips. In a medium sized bowl mix together the chicken, soy sauce, sugar and red pepper flakes. Marinade for at least 30 minutes. After 30 minutes you can sauté the chicken.

For the noodles:

Take the rice noodles and bouillon cube and cover with hot water until the noodles are completely submerged. Boil the noodles for about 3-5 minutes until al dente.

To assemble the rolls:

Make sure that you have a bowl of hot water. Submerge the rice paper in the water. Depending on the quality of your rice paper sometimes it just needs to be quickly submerged and other times you may need to keep the paper in the water for a minute. Place the rice paper on a clean work surface and place the chicken, rice noodles, carrots, basil, and cilantro in the middle. Fold the three sides so that it looks like an envelope and then roll the whole thing.

To make the sauce:

Toss all of the ingredients into a skillet and simmer for about 3-5 minutes. Make sure that everything is mixed well. The sauce is rather sweet but the spiciness will help balance that out.