St. Lucian Beef Stew

Servings: 4

Ingredients:

1 kg stewing beef like flank, ox cheek, shin or feather blade, cut into 3 cm chunks

2 tbsp vegetable oil

2 medium onions, peeled and finely chopped

4 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed

40 g of root ginger, peeled and grated

A pinch of ground cloves

1 tbsp dark brown sugar

1 tsp hot pepper sauce, preferably West Indian

1 tsp chopped fresh marjoram, oregano or thyme

1 tsp tomato purée

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 l beef stock or a couple of stock cubes dissolved in that amount of hot water

Cooking Instructions:

Season the beef with salt and pepper. Heat a tablespoon of the oil in a heavy-based frying pan until almost smoking and fry the beef, a handful at a time, on a high heat, turning occasionally until nicely browned. Repeat with the rest of the meat and put to one side. Heat the rest of the oil in a pan large enough to take all the stew and fry the onions and garlic on a medium heat for 4-5 minutes, stirring occasionally until golden. Add the ginger, ground cloves and sugar, and continue to cook for 3-4 minutes until the mixture begins to caramelise to a dark brown color. Add the pepper sauce, marjoram, tomato purée, the beef and any juices, and stir well. Add the beef stock, lightly season, bring to the boil and simmer for 11/2 hours with the lid on. If the stock evaporates leaving some of the meat uncovered, add a cupful or so of water. It's difficult to put a cooking time on stewing beef so if it's not tender after 11/2 hours, keep simmering it until it's done. This could take another 30 minutes to 1 hour and you may have to top up the sauce with water if necessary.

The consistency of the stew should be quite dry with not too much sauce, so when you are happy with the tenderness of the meat check the amount of sauce and turn the heat up to reduce the sauce if there is too much.

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