Stew Peas and Rice

Stew Peas and Rice

During childhood my favourite weekday was Friday. Besides not having school the next day, my brother and I paid fortnightly visits to the public library on Tom Redcam road. We took a circuitous walking route from home to the library to see the colourful billboards advertising the latest films at Carib cinema, the showrooms at Court’s appliance and furniture store and newly hatched chicks at a tiny hardware and dry goods store.

  The library was also a treat, as it had a well-stocked comic book section where my imagination went wild.  The walk back home with library books in hand was more of a canter, for by then I was hungry and my favourite meal was ready and waiting – stew peas and rice! 

The stew is prepared in a variety of ways depending on tastes and conviction. Ital style stew is wholly vegetarian, while traditionalists prepare it with salted pig tail. Non-pork meat eaters use beef instead.  But in all variations kidney beans and spinners (dumplings) are essential.

Since I am not a cook I won’t give you the details on how to prepare this dish, but here are some really good links and images of stew peas and rice.

With beef:   http://jamaicans.com/stewpeas/
With salted pork: https://cooklikeajamaican.com/new-recipe-stew-peas-and-rice-video/
Ital/vegetarian : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTlAjkaNVWw

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Denise
November 2017