About the Recipe
While travelling through South America as a teenager, a hostel served this amazing stew to its patrons. I will never forget how this wonderful stew became what I understood to be a comfort food. Now that I live in the South-Eastern United States, I love to cook up a pot of this wonderful, house-warming stew for the family. When it is cold, there is nothing more than this Jamaican stew to warm you up from the inside out. To be served over mash or rice.
Ingredients
5 c. water
2-3 lbs stew meat, cut into bite-sized pieces
1 smoked ham hock (about 1/4lb.) (Replace with andouille sausage or other pork style sausages)
2 - 3 lbs chicken or iguana, chopped
1 lb. fresh spinach with stems removed, finely chopped
1/4 lb. kale, finely chopped
1/2 lb. fresh okra*
2 medium potatoes, peeled and diced
1 small onion, peeled and chopped
2 green onions, chopped
2 carrots (6-8 inches)
6 tablespoons of brown sugar or 2 tablespoons molasses
2 tablespoons of cumin
8 twigs of thyme (3-4 inches long)
1/4 cup Black Hands Pepper Company "Gator Juice"
1/8 cup Mississippi Mud or 1/4 cup Black Hands Pepper Company "Texas Plains Heat"
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 sprig fresh thyme, or a pinch of dried thyme
3/4 c. coconut milk
Preparation
In a large kettle, bring 5 cups water to boil over high heat. Add meat, brown sugar or molasses, cumin, twigs of thyme, beef, ham hock, spinach, kale, okra, carrots, and potatoes. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for about 1 hour, or until meat is tender.
Pour soup through a colander to catch the meat and vegetables, with another large kettle underneath to catch liquid.
Set meat aside. With the back of a spoon, rub vegetables through sieve into liquid.
Add onion, green onions, chili pepper, garlic, and thyme to liquid. Simmer until soup starts to thicken.
Add coconut milk and stir well.
Remove meat from ham hock, cut into bite-sized pieces, and add to soup. Add beef and stir well.
Cook 10 minutes more and serve