This simple recipe for caribbean stewed beef is so good, you’ll be cleaning any remaining gravy in the pot with a piece of bread. Spices in stews add a wonderful flavor profile… here we used tonkabean, nutmeg and all-spice aka pimento in Jamaica. You can create your own blends using other spices like cinnamon, clove, cardamon, star anise, aniseed or even geera. Bay leaves and roucou also give stews that unmistakably rich caribbean flavor. We use carrot as well in this recipe, not just for flavor but it works well as a thickening ingredient for the gravy.

Ingredients:

• Approx 2 lbs of Beef
• 6 cloves of garlic
• 1 medium sized onion
• fresh thyme
• 2 bay leaves
• 1/2 carrot
• spices: tonkabean, nutmeg & all spice (aka pimento in Jamaica)
• 1 scotch bonnet pepper
• brown sugar
• roucou (optional)

Directions:

• Roughly chop garlic, onion, thyme and carrot
• Use spice grinder for spices or spice grater (you won’t be able to grate the all-spice/ pimento)
• Add about 2-3 tablespoons of oil to a pot then add brown sugar and caramelize. The trick to caramelizing the sugar is to keep moving it around using a wooden spoon.
• Add beef, bay leaves, spices, chopped veggies and salt to taste. Its important not to add any liquid to the pot at this stage of the cooking process. Cover the pot and allow the meat to spring its own juices to start the braising process. Cook for about 20-3o mins until it starts to thicken and stick to the bottom of the pot.
• At this stage you can add your roucou which is optional, or just add hot water and your scotch bonnet pepper. Cover and allow to cook for about 1 hour and 45 mins to 2 hours on medium to low heat. Be sure to check on it every 30 mins or so to make sure it doesn’t dry up. If it does just keep deglazing with a little hot water, don’t add too much to make the stock too thin… maintain ah thickness. Enjoy! 🙂

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