Slow Cooked Jamaican Stew Peas with Breadfruit

If you enjoy Jamaican food you’ll enjoy this simple slow cooker recipe that will save you from watching the pot on the stove. Stew peas is one of my favourite Jamaican dishes. I discovered that it is easy and delicious to make it in a slow cooker with a few simple ingredients. I also had some breadfruit this time that I added as a side dish but, you do not need to add this to this dish for you to enjoy the meal.

Ingredients:

Stew Peas:

• Beef stew (cut into 1-inch cubed pieces)
• 2 sprigs of fresh thyme or a 1/2 teaspoon of dried thyme
• 2-3 stalks of scallion/green onion
• 1 can of coconut milk
• 1 can of red kidney beans
• 1 tbsp of oyster sauce
• 1 tbsp of minced garlic
• 1 tsp of salt
• 1 tsp of black pepper
• 1 scotch bonnet pepper
• 1-2 Pigs tail (*optional – chopped into 1-inch pieces)
• 1 tbsp of vegetable oil (alternative option is coconut oil)

Spinners:

• 1 cup of flour
• 1/2-3/4 cup of water
• 1 pinch of salt

Side Dishes:

• Breadfruit
• 1/4-1/2 cup of vegetable oil
• 1 tsp of salt
• 1-2 cups of white rice

Directions:

Stew Peas:

1.  Marinate beef stew meat with oyster sauce and the minced garlic (and let sit for 15-30min)
2. Pre-heat frying pan on medium heat with a tbsp of oil
3. Brown the beef stew for approximate 2-3 minutes on each side. The beef should be slightly brown in colour before putting in slow cooker
4. Add the can of coconut milk to the slow cooker
5. Drain 1/2 the liquid of the kidney beans from the can and pour the kidney beans into the slow cooker
6. Add the browned beef stew meat into the slow cooker
7. Wash and add the stalks of green onion into the slow cooker
8. Wash and add the fresh thyme to the slow cooker
9. Optional steps if you have pigs tail to add to the stew peas: a) rinse and boil the pigs tail in hot water in a pot for approx. 15 minutes to remove some of the salt from the cured pigs tail; b) add the pigs tail to the slow cooker
10.  Wash and add the whole scotch bonnet pepper into the slow cooker on the top (*do not cut or burst while the stew peas is cooking unless you enjoy very spicy food)
11. Cook stew peas for 3-4 hours on high heat on the slow cooker
12. Prepare spinners and cook white rice for the stew peas approximately 1 hour before end of cooking time for stew peas
13. Mix the cup of flour with the water in a bowl until it is the consistency of soft pizza dough or bread dough
14. Take small handful of dough and roll in the palm of your hand to make the spinners
15. Place spinners in slow cooker liquid approximately 30 minutes before the stew peas cooking time ends
16. Remove the thyme sprigs, green onion stalks and scotch bonnet pepper from the slow cooker and you can slice the scotch bonnet pepper in a side plate/dish to serve as a condiment for those who like spicy food or keep the scotch bonnet in the slow cooker and burst and stir in the pepper to make the entire dish spicy (*scotch bonnet pepper seeds are the spiciest part of the pepper)
17. Enjoy and serve with white rice

Breadfruit side dish:

1. Wash the breadfruit and remove the stalk if necessary
2. Wrap it in foil and bake or roast for 1-2 hours in a preheated oven at 350ºF
3. Slice the breadfruit in half and peel the skin off
4. Cut into wedges and then into thinner slices
5. Fry in preheated frying pan on medium heat with vegetable oil until each side is golden brown and crispy (approx. 3-5 minutes per side)
6. Sprinkle salt to taste over fried breadfruit