Matapa recipe

Young cassava leaves pounded with garlic in a wooden mortar, then simmered for hours in milk pressed from freshly grated coconut and ground raw peanuts, often with crab and prawns.

2 hours and 30 minutesmedium11 ingredients

Ingredients

• 250 g cassava leaves
• 500 g raw peanuts
• 1 fresh coconut
• 1000 g crab
• 100 g prawns
• 5 clove garlic
• 3 piri-piri chillies
• 4 tomatoes
• 0.5 onion
• 1 pinch salt
• 1 lemon

How to make Matapa

1. Wash 250 g young cassava leaves (the tender tips) and let them dry, then pound them in a mortar with 5 garlic cloves, 3 piri-piri chillies and a pinch of salt until you have a fine, compact paste.
2. Put the paste in a pot with a little water and boil uncovered for 30 minutes.
3. Meanwhile pound 500 g raw peanuts to a powder and sift it. Grate 1 large coconut, pour warm water over it and squeeze through a cloth or sieve to extract the milk; stir the peanut powder into this liquid.
4. Clean 1 kg crab and 100 g prawns (fresh or dried), and dice 4 tomatoes and half an onion.
5. Add the coconut and peanut liquid, the crab, prawns, tomatoes and onion to the leaves and simmer gently for 1 to 2 hours, stirring from time to time, until thick: this long cooking is essential for cassava leaves.
6. Finish with the juice of 1 lemon, adjust the salt and serve hot with white rice, xima or upswa.

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