In my country, everyone who knows how to cook, knows how to make stew from scratch. Homemade stew on that side of the world differs from the West, because it is very tomato-rich and spicy. I don’t usually make stew from scratch because I can easily buy a jar from the grocery store. It is also extremely time consuming. This recipe takes approximately two hours to complete so I would recommend doing this when you’re in a good mood and have lots of free time. It takes lots of patience with very few possibilities of shortcuts.
How to serve this stew
You can serve this homemade stew with rice, pasta or boiled yam or cassava. I actually love serving this stew with fried or boiled plantain. It’s very versatile so it will have your dinner set for a few days. I highly recommend making this stew when you have cooked some sort of meat because the meat drippings (juices from the meat) add flavor to the stew. When making homemade stew, it initially tastes very bland and weird.
What you need for a delicious homemade stew
To start, you need lots of ripe tomatoes. I use at least 4. Then I blend the tomatoes with 1 small onion, ginger, garlic cloves and water. Most people back home would add at least 1 scotch bonnet pepper to blend but I wasn’t looking for a spicy stew. The key is to blend it for a while to get the smoothest purée possible. Then get another onion and chop it finely. You can also chop extra garlic cloves and pepper if you want. Fry the onions until browned, and I like to use the oil I used to fry the meat. If you baked the meat, just reserve the juices around it for later. Another key ingredient is tomato paste. It boosts the red color of the stew and gives it a rich base. Fry the tomato paste for at least 5 minutes to help remove the sour taste.
Cooking the beef stew
Next, you add in the blended purée. The hard part is waiting for the purée to cook. It needs over 1 hour of cooking time to taste okay. Use all the seasoning you want because this stew will need it. I used garlic powder, black pepper, red pepper and bay leaves to add flavour to my stew. I’ve also used curry powder before and it was great. As previously mentioned, if you want to add drippings from meat, this is where you add it. I added tinned mixed vegetables but it is totally optional. I like to add the fried meat to the stew in the last 20 minutes so that it soaks up the stew and also provides extra flavor. Therefore, it is a give-and-take relationship. This recipe works best with boiled rice, fried rice or boiled pasta. You can also use this to make jollof rice. Enjoy!
Ingredients
Beef
0.65 kg/1.4 lbs stewing beef chunks
2 teaspoons table salt
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon garlic powder or minced garlic
2 teaspoons ground black pepper
1/4 cup oil to fry beef
Stew
4 large ripe tomatoes, trimmed and cut in half
2 small onions, peeled
4 garlic cloves, peeled
2 inch raw ginger, peeled
1 cup water
Cooking oil that you used to fry beef (plus any extra meat drippings)
4 tablespoons (1/4 cup) tomato paste
1 cup beef broth
4 bay leaves
2 teaspoons table salt
2 teaspoons crushed red pepper
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 teaspoons garlic powder or minced garlic
Instructions
Beef (follow ingredients list)
- Season the beef with salt, ginger, garlic and black pepper.
- Heat the oil in a large frying pan and fry the beef in batches on medium-high until it gets super browned on all sides.
- Place the fried beef to a plate and transfer the oil you used to a large saucepan. Set aside.
Stew (follow ingredients list)
- Finely chop one of the onions and set aside.
- In a high spend blender, blend the tomatoes with the remaining onion, garlic cloves, raw ginger and water for about 3-4 minutes until it is super smooth.
- Heat the oil you got from frying the beef in the saucepan on medium-high heat and fry the chopped onions in it until they brown slightly.
- Stir in the tomato paste and fry for another 5 minutes, stirring frequently so it doesn't burn.
- Add the blended purée and beef broth to the saucepan along with the salt, crushed red pepper, black pepper and garlic.
- Let it cook on medium-high heat, uncovered, for 40 minutes, covered until the water has evaporated halfway and the stew looks thicker. Stir occasionally.
- A sign that the stew is almost ready is when it starts spluttering a lot.
- Once the stew has reduced more than halfway, lower the heat and add the fried beef. You can also add tinned vegetables at this stage.
- Cover the saucepan halfway with its lid and let it simmer for another 10 minutes on medium heat.
- Serve with rice or pasta.
- Keep leftovers refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 6 days in the fridge or a month in the freezer.
Notes
You can also add in chopped fresh herbs in the last stages of your stew for a nice aroma.