Carne con Salsa de Cacahuete

Medium·30 min active + 45 min resting

Equatoguinean meat in peanut sauce — beef or chicken simmered in a thick peanut paste sauce with onion, tomato, garlic, hot pepper, and palm oil. Spanish-colonial-era influence in name; Bantu cooking technique underneath. Served with rice.

Carne con salsa de cacahuete is the Spanish-colonial-named version of the universal Central African peanut stew.

Spoon up carne con salsa de cacahuete — meat in a thick golden-brown peanut sauce, plantain cubes soft, palm oil sheen. Bite: peanut richness leads, palm oil's earth underneath, tomato's acidity balancing, piri-piri tingling. With rice, this is Malabo Sunday lunch.

Whisking peanut paste with hot water prevents lumps. Browning builds Maillard depth.

Variations

With chicken. With lamb. With added cassava leaves. Vegetarian. With more chili. Without palm oil.

On the Palate

Where Carne con Salsa de Cacahuete sits in the Equatoguinean flavor cloud

Ingredients

Serves 6

4 + 2 tbsp pasteTomato

2 piri-piriChili Pepper

300 gPlantain

1.5 tspSalt

1 tspBlack Pepper

How it's made

9 steps · 30 min active + 45 min waiting

1
6 min
Cut 1 kg beef shoulder (or chicken) into 4-cm cubes. Season with salt, pepper.
2
12 min
Heat 3 tbsp palm oil. Brown meat in batches; remove.
Watch out
Brown in batches with space between cubes — crowd the pot and the meat steams grey instead of building that seared crust.
3
6 min
Sauté 2 sliced onions 5 min. Add 4 minced garlic, 2 piri-piri; cook 1 min.
4
6 min
Add 4 chopped tomatoes, 2 tbsp tomato paste; cook 5 min.
5
3 min
Whisk 200 g peanut paste with 500 ml hot water; add to pot.
Watch out
Whisk the peanut paste smooth with the hot water before it hits the pot — mixing it straight into the stew is where the lumps come from.
6
62 min
Return meat. Add 200 ml additional stock. Cover; simmer 60 min.
Watch out
Keep it at a bare simmer for the full hour — a hard boil breaks the peanut sauce and it separates into oil and grit.
7
21 min
Add 300 g cubed plantain or sweet potato in last 20 min.
8
1 min
Taste; adjust salt and chili.
9
1 min
Serve hot with rice or yuca con pescado.