Hi everyone and welcome back to Tasting My Heritage! This week we’re going back to Jamaica! I’ll be showing you how to make Jamaican stew beef. In the United States, something similar to this would be “beef stew.” The difference between the beef stew and stew beef are just the spices that go into it. Also, in Jamaica that’s just what they like to call it. This is a pretty intricate recipe but I feel that I’ve simplified it into something that will be very easy for everyone to follow. Let’s get started with this recipe!
I’ll be using my crockpot to make this. I believe I have a 4qt crockpot. It’s somewhat smaller but this makes more than enough for a week’s worth of stew! I decided to freeze my extras, which you can do too if you choose.
PLEASE NOTE: I measure with my heart, so I’m eyeballing every seasoning I use. Please adjust these spices to your taste and know that my measurements are educated guesses depending on how much I used of each ingredient.
I like my food with a little kick to it.
It’s always recommended to start small and add more if needed. Remember, you can always add more but you can’t take away 🙂
Ingredients:
- Chuck roast beef (I got a pack from Aldi that was actually shredded small pieces)
- Jerk Chicken seasoning
- One to two tablespoons of pepper
- A sprinkle of garlic salt
- A tablespoon of ground cumin
- A tablespoon of turmeric powder
- A tablespoon of ginger paste
- Two to three tablespoons of minced garlic (Fresh is better and if you have that then I would use about three cloves)
- Four teaspoons of light brown sugar
- ⅓ cup of steak sauce
- One chopped onion
- Three pieces of scallions/green onions chopped
- Almost an entire container of beef stock (I had about half a cup left in mine when I finished using it)
- Half a container of diced tomatoes (Fresh tomatoes are fine too, you could use a large diced fresh tomato as well)
- About four pieces of thyme
- Two yellow potatoes, cut into cubes
- Handful of baby carrots
- One to two sticks of celery
- Two peppers cut into long pieces (I used a red one and an orange one to add color)
Step one: Begin seasoning your chuck roast beef. Season it with jerk seasoning powder, one to two tablespoons of pepper, a sprinkle of garlic salt (because your jerk seasoning has salt in it already so we only want a sprinkle), a tablespoon of ground cumin, a tablespoon of turmeric powder, a tablespoon of ginger paste, two to three tablespoons of minced garlic (or three fresh cloves are good too), four teaspoons of light brown sugar, ⅓ cup of steak sauce (add more to taste). Mix this all together.
It’s important to let this marinate in the fridge for at least a few hours or overnight if you can to enhance the taste and flavor.
Step two: Chop one medium sized onion into small pieces and place it on the bottom of your crockpot slow cooker.
Step three: Place your seasoned chuck roast beef on top of the onions in the crockpot slow cooker.
Step four: Chop three pieces of green onions or scallions and place that on top of your beef in the crockpot.
Step five: Pour almost the entire container of beef stock or just enough to cover your beef (you can add more or less depending on your preference but I wanted mine to have enough to have a good amount of stew sauce).
Step six: Open a can of diced tomatoes and pour half of the container over the chuck roast beef in the crockpot. You can also use a fresh tomato but I would use a large one if I went for fresh.
Step seven: Add four pieces of thyme and make sure the stem is not included.
Step eight: Turn your crockpot to high and anticipate cooking it for four hours.
Step nine: While your chuck roast beef is cooking in the crockpot on high, get your veggies chopped and prepped. These will be put in after about 2 hours of your crockpot being on. Chop up a handful of carrots (I used baby carrots and you can keep those whole or chopped to your liking), chop a few long pieces of celery (I used two because my crockpot is smaller and I wanted to make sure I had enough room), Cut two large yellow potatoes into cubes (feel free to leave the skin on or off but wash them beforehand if you leave the skin), cut two colorful bell peppers into long pieces. When everything is cut up, set it aside until the two hours of your crockpot cooking have gone by.
Step ten: Add your veggies to the crockpot and let it cook for another two hours. During this time you may also sip your stew and you can add more seasonings if needed.
Step eleven: Serve over rice and enjoy your stew beef!
