Staff writer Lil Miss Kim
OK… NO I’m not trying to ‘tie’ anybody!…lol. He’ll stay….. and it has nothing to do with my stew peas (well…maybe..hahaha) So forget…just for a minute…ALLLL the stories you heard about Jamaican Stew Peas..ok?
Well I can truly say that this is my absolute favourite dish (I say that alot..don’t I?..IGNORE ME ..PLEASE). I say this because, if I should call my mom now to tell her I’m coming…I guarantee she’d be cooking me some stew peas (got to love that woman!) And I’m not talking that crap with the chicken foot and all sorts of things that don’t belong in stew peas (shake my head)..ahhh boi.
So I cooked myself some stew peas the other day and this is what I did J
Of course you’re gonna need red peas (DUH), escallion, thyme, scotch bonnet pepper, onion, garlic, coconut milk and pimento. Get your pigstail (yes..mi love mi pork..I’m not ashamed of it either lol) and or salt beef. I use both (greedy)…I do that alot too…talk to myself (raised eye-brow).
Put your peas on with your pimento and about 2 pegs of garlic…this depends on how much you’re cooking. Cook peas until tender. I boil my pigstail and salt beef separately first just get rid of some of the salt (I know…what’s stew peas without that salty-ness right?) but not too much though. Boil once depending on your salt intake, and then add to your peas. Cook both together (peas and meat). When the peas is tender (hopefully the meat is too) add your coconut milk…if you’re using the tin coconut milk, 1 should be enough, but then again it depends on how much you are cooking. Alternatively, a thoroughly juiced coconut will do just fine J…you smell that? It’s pretty much like cooking rice and peas. Add your coconut milk, scotch bonnet pepper, escallion, onion and thyme. Notice I didn’t add salt?…that’s because the pigstail and the beef should be salt enough to cook this pot. You may of course add some powdered seasoning if you wish but I find that a little black pepper goes a long way.
Cook until it thickens (not like tun corn meal u nuh!), just enough to make a gravy/sauce…whatever. It takes roughly about 1 ½ to 2 hours to cook this dish, so by then peas, pigstail and all should be tender enough. Ohhh…how could I forget…add some spinners. If you choose to add spinners (small dumplings), do this couple minutes after you’ve added the coconut milk and seasoning. Some folks add flour to thicken the stew…but I don’t really think that’s necessary. Serve with plain long grain rice..I once saw a man have stew peas with rice and peas!…can you say peas overload!!! Lol (like…why??? come to think of it…hahahaha)
And that’s how I do my Stew peas…Please share your way of cooking Stew peas and let me know what I forgot..I’m drinking now…so I’m a bit tipsy writing this (just kidding…lol) and Chris Brown is on the TV ah jump and prance…Turn up the music!!!
