Domoda with Rice

Peanut stews run all along West Africa and I want to learn the Gambian one, because groundnuts are Gambia's main crop and this is the dish the country calls its own. The technique I want to understand is how to cook peanut butter into a sauce without it splitting or scorching: thinning it first, adding it to a simmering pot, and keeping the heat low while it thickens. I also want a dish where sweet potato and cabbage are cooked into the stew, which is how I think I can get more vegetables into my son without a negotiation. It is weeknight-feasible because the browning is brief, the stew simmers on its own for 40 minutes, and everything goes into one pot with rice on the side.

• Natural unsweetened peanut butter: The stand-in for pounded groundnut paste. Buy the kind whose only ingredients are peanuts and salt; sweetened, emulsified peanut butter makes the stew taste like dessert. About 3/4 cup.
• Sweet potato or pumpkin: The soft, sweet element that balances the peanut. Orange sweet potato is the easiest; butternut squash works too.
• Beef chuck: Cut into 1-inch cubes; it needs the full simmer to go tender. Boneless chicken thighs are a faster alternative that cuts 15 minutes off the cook time.
• A whole hot chile: Gambian cooks drop in a whole fresh chile that stays intact and is removed before serving; the stew tastes of its warmth without real heat. A habanero gives the most authentic aroma; a jalapeño is milder.

1. Pat the beef dry and season with salt and pepper.
2. Dice the onion. Mince the garlic. Dice the tomatoes. Peel the sweet potato and cut into 1-inch chunks. Peel and slice the carrots into thick coins. Cut the cabbage into 2-inch wedges, leaving a bit of core so they hold together.
3. Whisk the peanut butter with 1 cup warm water in a bowl until smooth and pourable; this prevents lumps.
4. Rinse the rice and set up the rice pot with 2 1/4 cups water and a pinch of salt. Make the hibiscus drink base now if you have not already (see Drink Pairings).

1. Heat the oil in the Dutch oven over medium-high. Brown the beef in two batches, 3–4 minutes each, and move to a plate.
2. Lower the heat to medium, add the onion with a pinch of salt, and cook 5 minutes until soft. Stir in the garlic and tomato paste and cook 1 minute, then add the tomatoes and cook 4 minutes until jammy.
3. Return the beef, add 3 cups stock (or water with the bouillon cube), the bay leaf and the whole chile, and bring to a simmer. Cover and cook gently 25 minutes.
4. Pour in the thinned peanut butter, stirring until the broth turns uniformly orange-brown. Add the sweet potato and carrots, re-cover, and simmer 15 minutes, stirring every few minutes so the peanut sauce does not catch on the bottom.
5. Tuck in the cabbage wedges, cover, and cook 10 minutes more, until the beef is tender, the sweet potato yields to a fork and the sauce is thick enough to coat a spoon. If it is too thick, loosen with a splash of water; if thin, simmer uncovered a few minutes.
6. Start the rice when the sweet potato goes in: bring to a boil, cover, cook 15 minutes on the lowest heat and rest 5. Remove the chile and bay leaf from the stew. Season with salt, pepper and the juice of half the lemon; it should taste rich, a little sour and barely warm with chile.

Spoon rice onto each plate and ladle the domoda over one side, making sure each person gets beef, sweet potato, carrot and a wedge of cabbage, with plenty of sauce soaking into the rice. Lemon wedges go on the table. Because the chile cooked whole and came out, the stew is gentle enough that my son gets the same bowl we do; adults who want more can mash a little of the chile into their portions. Leftover domoda is better the next day and keeps four days; it thickens in the fridge and loosens with a splash of water. It freezes well.