Jamaican Stew Peas Recipe With Pig Tail

Stew peas is weekday food in Jamaica: red kidney beans (we call them red peas) cooked down with salted pig tail or salt beef, coconut milk and small flour dumplings called spinners, until the pot is thick, dark and creamy. The Gleaner calls it one of the staples of the weekly Jamaican menu, and every cook has a way of doing it. Growing up in Jamaica, a plate of stew peas and white rice was the kind of dinner that showed up without anybody asking for it, and nobody complained. This is the classic pig tail version, with swaps if you’re cooking it abroad.

Ingredients

For the stew peas

• 1 lb (450 g) salted pig tail, cut into 1 to 2 inch (3 to 5 cm) pieces
• ½ lb (225 g) salt beef or stewing beef, cubed (optional)
• 2 cups (about 400 g) dried red kidney beans
• 10 cups (2.4 liters) water, plus more as it cooks down
• 4 cloves garlic, crushed
• 10 pimento (allspice) berries
• 1 can (13.5 oz / 400 ml) coconut milk
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2 stalks scallion (green onion), crushed
• 3 sprigs fresh thyme
• 1 whole scotch bonnet pepper
• ½ teaspoon (2.5 ml) black pepper
• Salt to taste (you may not need any)

For the spinners

• 1 cup (125 g) all-purpose flour
• ¼ teaspoon (1 ml) salt
• About ⅓ cup (80 ml) cold water

How to make stew peas

The day before

1. Rinse the beans, put them in a bowl and cover with about 8 cups (2 liters) of cold water. Leave them to soak overnight, or at least 5 hours.
2. Rinse the pig tail pieces and soak them in a separate bowl of cold water overnight. This draws out a lot of the salt.

On the day

1. Drain the pig tail (and salt beef, if using), put it in a large pot, cover with fresh water and boil for 10 minutes. Pour that water away. If a piece still tastes very salty, boil and drain once more.
2. Drain the beans and throw away the soaking water. Put the beans, pig tail, beef, garlic and pimento in the pot with 10 cups (2.4 liters) of fresh water.
3. Bring it to a full, rolling boil and keep it boiling for at least 30 minutes. Then turn the heat down and simmer, partly covered, for 1 to 1½ hours, until the beans are soft enough to crush against the side of the pot and the pig tail is tender. Top up with hot water so the beans stay covered.
4. Stir in the coconut milk, onion, scallion, thyme, black pepper and the whole scotch bonnet. Simmer for 15 minutes.
5. While it simmers, make the spinners. Mix the flour and salt, add the water a little at a time and knead to a firm, smooth dough. Pinch off small pieces and roll each one between your palms into a thin log about 3 inches (7 to 8 cm) long.
6. Drop the spinners into the pot and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes, stirring now and then so nothing catches at the bottom, until the spinners are cooked through and the stew has thickened.
7. If it’s still thin, mash a ladle of the beans against the side of the pot, or blend them with a little of the liquid and stir them back in.
8. Fish out the thyme stems and the scotch bonnet, taste, and add salt only if it needs it. Serve hot.

Serve stew peas over plain white rice, with fried ripe plantain on the side. Many cooks pressure-cook the meat and beans to save time; if you do, follow your cooker’s instructions for dried kidney beans, still soaked and drained first.

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Tips and swaps if you’re cooking abroad

• No salted pig tail? West Indian and Caribbean grocery stores usually sell it in tubs or by the pound. If you can’t get it, smoked ham hock or smoked turkey necks give a similar smoky, salty depth. They aren’t as salty, so taste and season at the end.
• No pork: use salt beef, stewing beef or chicken. Cooks in the Gleaner’s feature use all three.
• Vegetarian: leave out the meat, add an extra cup of coconut milk and season with salt, more pimento and a little all-purpose seasoning. It’s still stew peas.
• Canned beans: use three 15 oz (425 g) cans of red kidney beans, drained. Skip the long boil: cook the meat until tender first, then add the beans with the coconut milk.
• Coconut milk: most Jamaican cooks use it, but not all. Leave it out and you get a lighter, brothier pot.
• Scotch bonnet: keep it whole. If it bursts, the whole pot gets very hot. Habanero is the closest substitute.
• Pimento: sold abroad as whole allspice.

Why the beans need a hard boil

Dried red kidney beans contain a natural toxin that can make people sick if the beans are undercooked. The US Food and Drug Administration’s advice is to soak them for at least 5 hours and then boil them in fresh water for at least 30 minutes, which is why this recipe drains the soaking water and starts with a rolling boil. Don’t cook dried kidney beans in a slow cooker; canned beans are already cooked.

More Jamaican food

Spinners are the small cousin of the boiled dumpling; my Jamaican dumplings recipe covers boiled, fried and spinners in full. For what else to eat on the island, see my guide to Jamaican food, and for a lighter pot, try my Jamaican fish tea recipe. If you’d rather someone else did the cooking, here are the best places for authentic Jamaican food in Jamaica.