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.

Meaty Jamaican stew peas

"JAMAICAN FLAVORS"

I am not sure if its red peas soup or the stew peas that came first. Similar to the age old question did the chicken or the egg come first. In case you are unaware stew peas is a thick version of red peas soup. They are literally the exact same thing (in my opinion), it’s just one is a thick stew served with white rice and the other is a runny soup. I always theorized that either someone left their soup on the stove too long until it became a stew and just ran with it, or someone added too much liquid that would not thicken and they just got fed up and had soup. Either way they are both Jamaican favorites and I will be making the stew in this post.

Meatless Stew peas

M...eat...less

Have you ever been to your favorite Jamaican lunch spot to order a stew peas lunch and heard “di meat finish” But you order it anyway because the stew peas is so good? A meatless Jamaican stew pea’s, with no pig tails is such a travesty. However as much as we love our meat recipes, they have to be revamped to accommodate the palates of the “non-meater’s” in our lives. There is really not much to say about this one. I won’t sit here and pretend that this version is better than one filled with pig tails, oxtails and beef. However it does pack a huge amount of flavor considering its lacking in the salted meat department.