African Stew

One of the nice things about being a "House Husband" as it were is that I can take some time to explore some aspects of cooking that I wouldn't otherwise get into. I have, on my daily blog checks, a number of cooking / recipe blogs. Occasionally, I'll find one that peaks my interest, cut and paste it into my wiki and hope that I'll eventually get to make it.

Arriving in Wellington, I find myself with a surplus of time some days I decided that cooking was probably my best, if not healthiest, option.

So armed with the recipe (taken from Lex Culinaria) I decided to take some of the produce grown in New Zealand, some with Maori names like Kumara (sweet potatoes) and combine them in a way I'd never thought of.

Add some couscous as a side and you get an incredibly flavorful vegetable curry (easy to convert to vegetarian as well!).

You can check the recipe at Lex Culinaria, there's some good photos as well, but I'll also cross post it here. Turned out GREAT! (I left out the chick peas because I ran out of time and the lime juice because I didn't have any on hand) I added some carrots because they had looked nice in the market. Really, you could throw almost any vegetable in here and it would likely work. The trick is the peanut butter, spices and raisins.

• 1 teaspoon Olive oil
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 1 large yam or sweet potato, cubed
• 1 large waxy potato, cubed
• 4 celery stalks, diced
• ½ green, red or yellow pepper, chopped
• 1 medium zucchini, cut in quarters lengthwise and then sliced in fat chunks
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 & ½ cups strong chicken broth (if I'm using regular broth, I just simmer it for a bit to concentrate it a bit)
• 1 980 ml can diced tomatoes in juice
• 1 540 ml (19 oz) can chickpeas, drained (optional - I don't add it as I really don't care for chickpeas)
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 2 teaspoons curry powder
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 2 teaspoons chilli powder
• 2 teaspoons ginger, minced (or 1 teaspoon dried ground ginger)
• ¼ teaspoons black pepper
• 1 tablespoon lime juice
• 1/3 cup raisins
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 4 tablespoons peanut butter

1. Heat olive oil in a large pot and add onion, potato, sweet potato, celery, pepper and garlic. Cook & stir for a few minutes.
2. Add broth, tomatoes, zucchini, chickpeas and spices. Let simmer for 25 minutes. Add raisins, peanut butter and tomato paste. Cook for 5 minutes more. Stir through lime juice. Serve.