Let’s face it: this whole Jamie Oliver – Comfort Food thing is going really well. I mean, in the past almost six months I made three, I repeat, THREE recipes from the book. I know, I know… I should slow down and take a break, but what can I do...

On a more serious note, Comfort Food is finally back, and now, after the gnocchi, pierogi, and the porridge, I made the Ghanaian Groundnut Stew from the book, and it’s a winner. I choose this recipe, because it was relatively easy to gather all the ingredients even in our little town, and just FIY, this is very rare with the recipes in this book. But I do like a challenge. The only thing I really had to substitute was the okra, but after consulting with my good friend, Google, I ended up using broccoli for that part.

Making this meal wasn’t hard and I enjoyed it a lot. The only problem was the amount of bowls and whatnots that were left to be washed after it was all done, but I now that sharing is caring, so I left that chore was assigned for another family member.

Although the original recipe said to use a whole chicken, I bought only the parts that the recipe actually used, so it was even easier to prepare the meal. This amount is enough for six people, and it takes about 2-2.5 hours to make it (plus the marinating). So let’s see this fantastic little stew, with the little changes I made.

What you'll need:

• the breast, thighs and wings of a chicken, bone on, skin on
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon sweet smoked paprika
• ½ teaspoon Cayenne pepper
• 2 medium sized onions
• 2 chilis
• 2 large eggplants
• 2 tablespoon tomato purée
• 4 cups tomatoes, chopped roughly
• 3 cups chicken stock
• 2 tablespoons smooth peanut butter
• 1 cup broccoli (the head)
• 1 purple onion
• 4 bay leaves
• ½ teaspoon brown sugar
• 5 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• olive oil
• salt, pepper

How:

1. Marinate the meat the night before (or at least for 2 hours): mix coriander, paprika, Cayenne pepper, salt, and pepper in a small bowl. Place chicken parts in a larger bowl, pour the mix on them, add a few glugs of olive oil, and coat all the pieces in this goodness. Then cover the bowl with cling film at put it in the fridge.
2. Preheat your oven to 200°C/392 Fahrenheit. Put the chicken parts into a large tray and roast for about 45 minutes, until golden brown.
3. Meanwhile, clean and chop roughly the two onions, eggplants, and one chili (remove the seeds!). Put them into a large casserole (a LARGE one!). Add a generous amount of olive oil, and on a medium heat, roast for about 30 minutes – stir it often!
4. When the chicken is ready, add everything from the tray to the vegetables, and even scrape up the bits from the bottom.
5. Then add the tomato purée, the tomatoes, and the stock. Bring to a boil, and then simmer for about an hour. Give it a stir from time to time.
6. After about half an hour, add the peanut butter.
7. Meanwhile, make the side dishes: cook some rice, and make sure to add a few bits of broccoli to the cooking water. Then roast the rest of the broccoli in a pan with some olive oil.
8. For the salad, slice the purple onion, and chop the other chili (seeds out!), toss in the bay leaves and the brown sugar, pour in the red wine vinegar, mix it well, and then let it sit until needed.
9. If the stew is done (the meat should come off the bones nicely), serve it with the rice, some roasted broccoli, and the lovely salad. Enjoy!

This is a really nice meal, and it needless to say that it’s now among the family-favorites, so there’s no doubt I’ll make it again soon. I especially liked this simple and quick salad, so I’m going to make a lot more of that for sure. Also, cooking up this stew made me realize that I like cooking a lot more than baking, so from now on, I’ll try and reach for The Book on a regular basis. ;)