Sauce arachide

Ingredients

The meat

• 1 kgchicken, jointed
• or 800 g beef, cut into chunks
• on the bone if possible
• salt and pepper

The peanut paste

• 300 gsmooth peanut butter
• unsweetened
• or 350 g roasted groundnuts, ground
• hot water, to loosen

The base

• 3 tablespoonsoil
• or red palm oil
• 2large onions, chopped
• 6 clovesgarlic, crushed
• a thumb of ginger, grated
• 4tomatoes, chopped
• or 1 tin chopped tomatoes
• 2 tablespoonstomato purée
• 1or 2 hot chillies
• or to taste
• 1stock cube
• about 1 litre water or stock
• salt and black pepper

Sometimes added

• 1aubergine, cubed
• 2carrots, cut into chunks
• a handful of okra
• a bay leaf

To serve

• white rice
• or foutou
• or attiéké
• a chilli sauce

Directions

1. Discard nuts that are shrivelled, discoloured or mouldy. Discard anything that tastes bitter or musty. Use unsweetened smooth peanut butter. Check it contains no added sugar. Check it contains no added palm oil. Roast groundnuts and grind them. It is worth doing if you have the time.
2. Put the peanut butter in a bowl. Whisk in hot water gradually. Add it a little at a time. Keep whisking until smooth. It should pour like single cream. Keep adding water and whisking. It comes smooth.
3. Season the meat with salt and pepper. Heat the oil in a heavy pot. Brown it in batches. Do not crowd the pot. Brown it properly in two batches. If you use chicken, do not wash it. Lift the meat out. Add the onions to the pot. Cook them for about ten minutes.
4. Add the garlic, ginger and chillies. Cook them for two minutes. Add the tomato purée and cook it two minutes. Add the chopped tomatoes. Cook them down for about ten minutes. Do not move on before you see it. Return the meat. Add the water or stock and the stock cube. Bring it to a simmer. Simmer chicken for about twenty-five minutes.
5. Simmer beef for about an hour. It should be tender. Whisk the loosened paste into the pot. Stir it through thoroughly. Stir it regularly from now on. Simmer it gently for thirty minutes. Stir and scrape the base throughout.
6. Add aubergine and carrot with the peanut paste. Add okra for the last ten minutes. It should be thick and creamy. Add hot water to loosen it. Season with salt and black pepper. Taste it carefully. Peanut sauce should not taste sweet. Serve it over white rice. It is a smooth elastic dough.
7. Take a piece of foutou with the right hand. Press a dent into it. Use it to scoop up the sauce. It keeps four days refrigerated. Add water when reheating it. Stir it constantly as it reheats.

Technique

• Loosen the peanut butter with hot water to the consistency of single cream before it goes in. Added thick it forms lumps that never break up — it will seize and look wrong at first, so keep adding water and whisking until it comes smooth.
• Stir regularly and scrape the base once the peanut paste is in, and again when reheating. It catches very easily and a caught pot tastes burnt throughout with no way to rescue it — the commonest failure with this dish.
• Oil separating and rising into an orange layer is wanted, not a fault. It shows the sauce has cooked properly, and an unseparated peanut sauce is undercooked. It is traditionally left rather than skimmed.
• Wait for the oil to separate from the tomato and onion base too, before the meat goes back in. That is the standard West African indicator throughout this cooking.
• Use unsweetened peanut butter with no added sugar or palm oil. If the finished sauce tastes sweet, the peanut butter was sweetened — balance it with salt, chilli and acid.
• This is built on groundnuts and cannot be made without them. Peanut allergy is one of the commonest severe allergies and can cause anaphylaxis — say so plainly and unmistakably.
• Groundnuts can carry aflatoxins, produced by moulds in humid climates and linked to liver damage with chronic exposure. Roasting does not destroy them, so buy from a reputable source and discard anything shrivelled, discoloured, mouldy or tasting bitter or musty.
• Brown the meat in batches without crowding the pot. Crowded meat steams grey instead of browning.
• Do not wash raw chicken. Washing splashes campylobacter around the kitchen and removes nothing from the meat.
• Keep it thick and creamy but pourable. It thickens a great deal as it stands, so keep hot water beside the pot and expect to loosen it when reheating.
• Season it well. Peanut sauce absorbs a great deal of salt and pepper before it tastes of anything.
• Grinding your own roasted groundnuts gives better flavour and more texture than peanut butter, and is worth doing if you have the time.
• Mafé in Senegal and Mali and groundnut soup in Ghana are the same construction under other names. The atlas records the family and does not adjudicate origin.

Substitutions

• Ground roasted groundnuts replace peanut butter and give more texture.
• Beef, goat or lamb replace chicken, needing a longer simmer.
• Red palm oil replaces vegetable oil for colour and a distinct flavour.
• Aubergine, carrot, okra or sweet potato can all be added.
• Smoked fish replaces the meat for a version without it.
• A vegetarian version with vegetables alone follows the same method.

Variations

• Mafé in Senegal and Mali is the same dish under another name.
• Nkatenkwan in Ghana is the groundnut soup version, thinner and served with fufu.
• Sauce graine uses palm fruit pulp instead of groundnut.
• Kedjenou is the Ivorian sealed-pot chicken stew, a quite different method.
• Sauce claire is the light broth counterpart on the same table.
• A version with smoked fish rather than meat is common where meat is scarce.

Frequently asked questions

What is Sauce arachide?

Sauce arachide is a soup & stew from Côte d’Ivoire: creamy peanut sauce with chicken or beef, served over rice.

How long does Sauce arachide take to make?

Sauce arachide takes 25 minutes of preparation and 1 hour 15 minutes of cooking. The recipe makes serves 6. It is rated easy to make.

What can I substitute in Sauce arachide?

Yes, within limits. Ground roasted groundnuts replace peanut butter and give more texture. Beef, goat or lamb replace chicken, needing a longer simmer. Red palm oil replaces vegetable oil for colour and a distinct flavour. Aubergine, carrot, okra or sweet potato can all be added. Smoked fish replaces the meat for a version without it. A vegetarian version with vegetables alone follows the same method.

What is the most important thing to get right in Sauce arachide?

Season the meat with salt and pepper. Heat the oil in a heavy pot. Brown it in batches. Do not crowd the pot. Brown it properly in two batches. If you use chicken, do not wash it. Lift the meat out. Add the onions to the pot. Cook them for about ten minutes.