Ingredients
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150 gr onionsfinely chopped
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2 tbsp Oilvegetable oil may be substituted
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300 gr Seafood:chopped (optional)
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150 gr peanut butter
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250 ml Coconut milk Kefir
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4 Maggi cubes
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to taste Salt
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1 tsp crushed red pepperor to taste
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½Kg fresh, young cassava leavespounded
Directions
Apart from seafood, Mozambique’s signature dish is Matapa. This shrimp stew is especially popular in the south where shrimp are plentiful and inexpensive. The basis of Matapa is cassava leaves cooked in peanut sauce and coconut milk. It is hearty, slightly sweet (from the coconut and prawns)Â and has a distinct flavour found no where else, from the cassava leaves. If you cannot find cassava, kale or collards would work too.
How to Make Matapa:
- Boil cassava leaves with garlic till cooked.
- Sauté onion pieces in a small amount of oil in a saucepan over medium-low heat.
- Cook until onions are softened, but do not brown them.
- Add the chopped seafood, peanuts, coconut milk, salt, Maggi standard cubes and a pinch of crushed red pepper and keep stirring.
- Over low heat, simmer for a few minutes.
- Add boiled cassava leaves.
- Keep stirring until peanut is cooked 10-15 minutes.
- Cover tightly; as soon as leaves are withered, Matapa is ready to be served.
- Serve over cooked white rice or xima (maize meal).
