Greedy Girl : Smoked stew peas

OFFAL

I’m not sure how many other ways I can make stew peas for this blog. I have a meatless version and a traditional version with meat. However, after the last stew peas recipe I added some smoked meats and the flavor was so amazing I decided to share that recipe as well. The first attempt I smoked the oxtail only. Today I smoked both the oxtails and pig tails.

Oxtail, pigtail, cow foot, goat head and belly, tripe, liver, kidney, chicken foot, pig ears, lamb tongue, sounds delicious? To some cultures these are regular every day foods but for others these parts of the animals end up going to waste, the term for them is Offal. Offal is really an animal’s organ meat, but its widely accepted to include all they undesirable “waste” parts of the animals which include feet, head and tails. This month on the blog I will be attempting to use these types of cuts to make delicious dinners that everyone can enjoy. I would say one thing, a pressure cooker may be vital, as the cuts are usually extremely tough and take longer to cook than lets say….a chicken breast.

So now to this recipe, be warned, this is a whole day stew, if you only have 30 minutes for dinner, or if you are the type that hates to be in the kitchen the entire day. This is not the recipe for you. Jamaican stew peas traditionally has always been that dish that gets started in the morning and takes all day to prepare. Especially if multiple types of meats are used. For starters, oxtails and pig tails take a long time to cook, and if you use dried peas then you just added another 45 minutes to an hour of cooking time to the roster. And because I’m extra, I added the step of smoking the meat before even starting the cooking process. All in all, it’s a labor of love. But well worth every second spent making it.

Ingredients (printable recipe)

For the oxtail

3 lb oxtail

1 ½ teaspoon sea salt

2 tablespoon ground allspice

1 tablespoon onion powder

½ teaspoon black pepper

1 tablespoon Smoked paprika

3 tablespoon coconut oil (to brown after smoking)

For the pigtails

5 pigtails

Water to boil

For the stew

2 cups dried red kidney beans

2 ½ cups coconut milk

2 cup water

3 stalks scallion

4 sprigs thyme

1 onion chopped

4 cloves whole garlic

1 tablespoon pimento

1 tablespoon sugar

1 ½ tablespoon salt

1 scotch bonnet pepper

1 sweet green pepper

For the Dumpling

1 cup flour

½ teaspoon salt

½ cup water

Instructions

The night before

Chop the pigtails into bite sized pieces
Place in cold salted water and set aside
Season the oxtail with salt, allspice, onion powder, black pepper, and smoked paprika
Mix to combine thoroughly, cover and place in the refrigerator to marinate overnight
Wash the dried beans and place in another dish of cold water to soak overnight

For the salted pigtail and oxtail

Place salted pig tails in a pot of water and bring to boil, cook the pig tails for about 30 to 45 minutes. Soaking overnight removes some of the salt, this boil should remove the last of the excess salt.
Pour off the liquid and wash the pigtails with fresh water, you can taste the pigtail to see if it is still too salty.
If it is, repeat with fresh water and cook for an additional 30 minutes.
Rinse and pat dry the pig tails, they will not be tender, this step is just to remove the excess salt
Place the oxtails and pigtails on a prepared smoker grill. Smoke the pig tails for 30 minutes and the oxtails for 45 minutes.
Place the coconut oil in a pot and add the smoked oxtails
Sauté on high flames continually stirring, allowing it to brown evenly.
Once the oxtail has browned add 2 cups of water and cook in a pressure cooker (I recommend a pressure cooker for this so there is no water loss, if you do this on the stove top the water will evaporate)
Oxtail varies in cooking time, you want to cook it to 85% tenderness. In my electric pressure cooker, that’s about 35 to 40 minutes of high pressure cooking, it should be fork tender but not falling off the bone.

For the stew

The pig tails are finished smoking 15 minutes before the oxtails
While the oxtails are still on the smoker, to a large pot, add the coconut milk, water, scallion, thyme, onion, garlic, allspice berries, sugar, salt, peas, smoked pigtails, bring to a boil, cover and reduce to medium heat.
The peas and pigtail will take about 45 minutes to become fork tender. If they are not tender, continue to cook until they are.
When the peas and pigtails are cooked add the pressure-cooked oxtail with all its liquid.
In a separate bowl combine the ingredients to make the dumplings, knead into a dough and form into small dumplings.
Add the dumplings to the pot
Add the sweet green pepper slices
Allow the whole thing to simmer on medium low heat until its very thick and creamy, mine took about another 1 ½ hour on the stove top before it was finished.
Serve with white rice

Greedy tips:

To cut the time in half, you can use canned red beans, as well as put the smoked pigtail and oxtail in the pressure cooker to completely cook, before adding back to the stew to reduce.
Make sure to taste for salt, the pigtails cooking with the red beans should impart salt into the entire stew, but if you find it needs more salt, you can add it. A tablespoon of sugar at the end also balances out the dish if for instance you added a bit too much salt.
If you don’t want the meat smoked, you can follow the recipe: "Click here"
Don’t have a smoker? You can use a standard weber kettle grill for indirect smoking, that’s what I did, check this video out "click here"