Sauce d'Arachide: From West Africa to Austin

My Unitarian Church in Austin is promoting seasonal and local eating this year, so we had a wonderful meal last night! The dinner organizer, Jeanette, delighted us with root vegetables (appropriate for the January evening) and a wonderful peanut sauce called Sauce d'Arachide. The peanut sauce is a common dish in West Africa where Jeanette lived for several years.

The West Africans are masters of eating seasonally and locally! In Kankan, Upper Guinea, January is carrot and cabbage season. As that season winds down, green beans, lettuce and mangoes ripen for people to eat. Then comes manioc which is also known as cassava, tapioca, yuca, and mandioca. You can link to my posts about tapioca flour and cassava. Onions, eggplants, and garlic are generally available throughout the year.

Enterprising women in Guinea packaged and sold the ingredients for Sauce d'Arachide in small plastic bags. The bags contained a tablespoon of tomato paste and 250 grams of locally ground peanut butter. These ingredients could be mixed with onions, a meat stock cube, some ginger root, and some meat if it is available. These ingredients would be cooked, then served over rice to feed a family of about six people. Actually anyone who showed up would be served, and the custom is to never refuse to offer water and food to guests.

At the time, a family would buy a 50 kilo sack of rice to hopefully last an entire month. There are three basic sauces that are commonly served over the rice. A leaf sauce is sometimes made with dried potato leaves. A thin tomato sauce is sometimes served. And the third is the peanut sauce.Sometimes manioc is added to thicken the sauces.