Lamb Mafe

We've had some beautiful grassfed lamb in the freezer for about a year now. We got it before I became a frienditarian, so that's why I hadn't really been in a hurry to cook it. ...didn't know what to do with it and wasn't going to eat it. Now that I am eating home and friend-raised animals, I thought it was time to dig out the goods.

Last night I thawed it out and made this recipe I found at foodtv.com

I halved the recipe to work with 1 pound of meat and added cayenne in lieu of the thyme. It was pretty good, but I would make some more tweaks next time - as noted in red in the recipe. Made with one pound of lamb, this feeds 3 adults.

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons peanut oil
  
• 1 large onion, minced
• 2 pounds lamb stew meat, cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces
• 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter (I used crunchy and it was fine. I would use at least twice as much as called for next time - it wasn't peanutty enough for my taste.)
  
• 1 1/2 cups cold water
• 1/3 cup tomato paste
• 2 cups hot water
• 4 large carrots, scraped and cut into 1-inch pieces
• 3 sprigs fresh thyme (I used cayenne instead and would probably use fresh chiles next time. I also googled other mafe recipes and saw that some called for garlic and ginger. That would definitely up the yum factor in my opinion.)
  
• 2 bay leaves
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• Other recipes I saw said you could add other veggies - eggplant seemed the best fit, but butternut was on the list, too. I was going to add okra, but picked my pods too late and they were too tough to use.
  

Directions

Heat the oil in a heavy saucepan, add the onion, and cook over medium heat until it is translucent. Add the meat and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until it is lightly browned on all sides.

In a small bowl, mix the peanut butter with the cold water and pour it over the meat. Dilute the tomato paste with the hot water, pour the liquid over the stew, and stir well to make sure all the ingredients are well mixed. Add the remaining ingredients, lower the heat, cover, and cook, stirring occasionally, for 1 hour, or until the meat is tender. Remove the thyme sprigs and bay leaves. Serve hot over white rice.

My husband and our friend who was over for dinner LOVED this. I liked it, but think the tweaks mentioned would make it even better. The recipe says this works with chicken, too.

I served this on rice and our sides were wilted spinach and grilled bread schmeared with fresh chevre. Delicious.