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Hena-Kisoa sy voanjobory (Pork with Bambara Groundnuts)

Hena-Kisoa sy voanjobory (Pork with Bambara Groundnuts) is a traditional Malagasy (from Madagascar) recipe for a classic stew of of pork loin pieces with Bambara beans in a tomato, onion and garlic paste. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic Malagasy version of: Pork with Bambara Groundnuts (Hena-Kisoa sy voanjobory).

prep time

10 minutes

cook time

105 minutes

Total Time:

115 minutes

Serves:

6

Rating:

Tags : Pork RecipesBean RecipesMadagascar Recipes

This is a traditional Malagasy (from Madagascar) recipe for a stew of pork loin pieces with Bambara beans in a tomato, onion and garlic paste.

For those not in the know, the Bambara groundnuts (also known as the Bambara bean, Bambara nut, Congo goober and hog-peanut is the bean of Vigna subterranea, a member of the Fabaceae (pea) family. Like the peanut, the pods ripen underground.

The plant was originally domesticated in West Africa and is named after the Bambara peoples of Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso and Senegal. However, due to its fast growth cycle (from planting to harvesting in 160 days) and its ability to grow in semi-arid conditions it is available grown in many sub-Saharan African countries. Typically Vigna subterranea is planted as a low density intercrop with sorghum, millet, maize, peanut, yams and cassava, where its ability to fix nitrogen aids the growth of the main crop.

Probably the most well-known usage of Bambara groundnuts is in the preparation of okpa, a breakfast pudding (related to moi moi) cooked in banana leaves from Enugu state in Nigeria. Now that I’ve sourced some Bambara groundnuts here in Durban, I’m going to use an industrial blender to make flour then I will share my wife’s recipe for okpa. The beans are really hard and to render into flour you need something much stronger than your typical household coffee grinder. However, if you can get hold of an Indian wet/dry grinder that will probably do the job.

But, for today, I am making pork with Bambara groundnut stew from Madagascar. The Bambara groundnut comes in a variety of colours, typically white, speckled, red, brown, green and black. The variety we were able to find was a speckled white bean. If you can get a mix of colours this makes an excellent bean dish in and of itself.

The Roma type tomato is typically used and locally is known as the Jam tomato. The original recipe called for fresh groundnuts, but I have adapted for dried versions. Now, in Africa the dried Bambara groundnuts tend to be fresher and less dry than those found in Europe/America so you may need to soak overnight (add a generous pinch of baking soda to help the beans soften) and you may need to cook for up to 2 hours.

Ingredients:

1kg (2 lbs) pork loin
500g (1 lb) Bambara groundnuts
3 tomatoes (Roma preferably), washed and diced
2 onions, peeled and finely chopped
3 large garlic cloves, crushed and grated
Salt and freshly-ground black pepper, to taste

Method:

Thoroughly wash and pick over the Bambara groundnuts to remove and sand and stones.

Place the washed beans in a large bowl, cover with plenty of water and set aside to soak (I left them all morning, but you may want to set them aside over-night).

Once soaked, combine the groundnuts in a large pot with the tomatoes, onions and garlic. Add 1.5l (6 cups) cold water and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer, partly cover the pot and cook for about 90 minutes (or more, depending on how dry your beans are) until the beans are beginning to become tender. Do not season at this point as the addition of salt will prevent the beans from softening.

Cut the meat into bite-sized pieces and add to the pot with some seasonings. Top up the water as need and simmer for about 1 hour, or until the beans have cooked and almost all the water has evaporated away.

Serve hot, accompanied by plain boiled white rice.