Growing up our dad was always at work (well at the time it seemed that way). But Sundays was our day. In the dry season he’d take me and my brother on long hikes through abandoned cacao and coffee estates to hunt and search out ground provisions. He was a master at finding yams of all description, size and shape. Not that stuff you find in the grocery store in North America. Yams with names like, “juba”, ‘finger” and “kush kush” and I can still remember the joy when we found a “patch”.
We’d leave early on a Sunday morning and be back in time for my mom to prepare lunch with the yam, dasheen and eddoes we found during our trek. So part of our Sunday lunch usually included ground provision and stew pork along with all the other dishes that a Sunday lunch is so famous for in Trinidad and Tobago. Yam connoisseurs would argue that nothing beats pairing yam with fried tomato and salt fish (salted cod), but I assure you.. stew pork is the way to go. But you don’t need yams or ground provisions to enjoy the amazing flavor of stew pork.
The principle and ingredients are very much the same as we explored with the “Stew Chicken” recipe a while back, except in this case we’re using pork.
You’ll need…
3lbs pork – cubed into 3/4 inch pieces
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon ketchup
2 cloves of garlic – thinly sliced or crushed
1 teaspoon fresh or bottled ginger – sliced. (use 1/2 if it’s ginger powder)
2 tablespoon vegetable oil (one that can withstand high heat)
1 medium onion – chopped
1 medium tomato – chopped
2 tablespoon cilantro (or 2 tbs Trinidad green meat seasoning)
1 1/2 tablespoon brown sugar
3 cups water
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 hot pepper (only if you like your food spicy)
1 green onion or chive – chopped
2 sprigs of fresh thyme (1 teaspoon dried)
1 lime or lemon or 3 tablespoons of vinegar
1 small shallot
Prepare the seasoning mix by dicing the onion, pepper, ginger, green onion, garlic, cilantro, shallot and tomato.
Now lets prepare the pork. Feel free to ask your butcher to do this step for you. Cut the pork into 3/4 inch pieces, removing the majority of fat and skin. One of the reasons why Caribbean dishes are known as being heavy, is our love for fat and skin. In days gone by I’d keep some of that fatty pieces of meat and skin. With age comes wisdom, so we know that this is to be avoided.
Wash… squeeze the lime or vinegar onto the cubed pork and rinse with water.
After you’ve washed the cubed meat, squeeze any remaining water from the bowl and begin to season. Add everything except the oil, sugar and 3 cups of water. Mix well and let marinate for about 2 hrs in the fridge – covered.
Time to get cooking. In a heavy bottom pot add the oil over high heat. As the oil starts to smoke or move along freely in the pot add the sugar. With a long handle spoon (to avoid splatters onto your hand) move the sugar around. You’re looking for the sugar to melt, change color and get to the point when it’s ready to caramelize.
Quickly start adding the seasoned pork as the sugar starts looking like the picture above. Stir around to evenly coat all the pieces of meat. Then lower the heat and simmer covered for about 10-15 minutes.
Now uncover the pot and raise the heat to high. We’re trying to get rid of all the natural juices that formed while it was simmering. In the meantime, add the 3 cups of water to the bowl that had the seasoned pork. We’re trying to pick up any bits of seasonings that were left behind.
As soon as all the liquid is gone and all the pieces of pork is evenly browned, add the 3 cups of water and bring to a boil. Then lower the heat, cover and let simmer for about 40-45 minutes. We’d like to get a nice thick gravy and have the pieces of pork as tender as possible. If after the 45 minutes you have too much liquid, be sure to turn up the heat and let some burn off.
Questions? Leave me a comment below or use the contact link at the top of this page. I’d love to hear from you.
This day I didn’t have any yams, but I did enjoy a nice plate of brown rice with this exciting way of preparing pork.
The meat looks so tender! Like it just melts in your mouth. Pass the plate please!
The Duo Dishes’s last blog post..A Belly Full of Buitoni
delious
Ummmm, want some.
Cynthia´s last blog ..Fond Recollections
i love the recipe and i’m going to try cook it right now and see how it turn out i hope it comes out as good as yours…my boyfriend loves stew pork so i want to do this for him for his dinner
Hey chris, this recipe sounds great. I have one question, what other meat can I substitute instead of pork here.
thank you,
Raymond
Shanna, I’m sure you’ll be successful and even better than mine.
Raymond, you can stew just about any meat including chicken, beef, ox tail and only recently someone wrote in to say they stew goat as well (though I’ve never had it).
Search stew in the search box and you’ll find some of the options I mentioned.
Chris De La Rosa´s last blog ..The 2009 Ancaster Home Show.
oh yes
thats aLL I CAN SAY ABOUT PORK
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i must remember not to open your emails before i eat my lunch. u always send some mouthwatering dishes. i will surely try this on the weekend. sorry no visiters lol.
This really looks delicious. Will try it sometime soon. Thanks.
this is the best pork stew i ever taste
Thanks for the comments. keep them coning.
Chris
I stewed lamb for Thanksgiving and my brother in law was like wooow this is so good. Tip!! coconut milk makes it taste like wild meat, I love to add cocnut milk to my meats.
BTW I just found this site along with trinigourmet.com and I love it, its so real and personal I feel like I’m in the kitchen cooking with you.
God Bless Point Fortin Trinidad to de bone
Nicky, Yea coconut is key to many dishes going from good to great. Trinigourmet is a real good site as well. Here’s another one to check out… a friend in Barbados (originally from Guyana): http://www.tasteslikehome.org/ and another one: http://chennette.net/ dig through this one for some nice recipes.
Keep commenting.
Chris
I’ve had this dish at many of the Jamaican restaurants here in Miami so I will have to make this at home and see how it compares. If it’s as good as it sounds, I can stop ordering it at the restaurants, and stick with my other favorite, curried goat, for meals out. (smile)
Thanks for this website.
Kitty
Thank you so much for this website! It is fantastic!
I found this recipe when i was trying to duplicate a “doved” pork that i had in Tortola, BVI. I have made it several times and it is delicious. I am having difficulty with getting the liquids to cook off and am wondering what i am doing wrong. After browning pork, i have turned up the heat to high to cook off liquid. However, it seems the longer it cooks, the more liquid i get (from tomatoes? onions? pork?). This is before adding 3 cups of water. I also have trimmed a fair amount of fat away to reduce the juices a bit. What should I do differently?
Again thank you for this website!
Katherine
Thanks for taking the time to comment everyone.
Katherine, there are a couple things I can suggest. 1. Remove the lid while the heat is on high when you’re trying to burn off the original liquid that forms. The 2nd thing I can suggest is to not burn off the liquid too fast (let it burn off at it’s own pace), but rather than add 3 cups of water to finish the cooking process, cut back to 2 cups. This should compensate for the longer cooking time to burn off the original liquid. I hope I made sense with my response
Hello Chris:
your recipe’s are great and I always enjoy them with my family, thanks so much for your support to us with these great menus.
the pork was outstanding.
Gerardo & Peggy
Gerardo & Peggy, Thanks for the kind comments. Stay tuned for even more great recipes.
happy cooking
chris…
Hi Chris
What made you decide to take pics of all the stages of the cooking, this is not usually done. You usually see the end result only. It is a very nice touch though.
Valerie thanks for leaving your comment. The pics is just to simplify the cooking process. Many people I know fear the kitchen and cooking because they can’t tell if what they’re doing is correct. hopefully these step by step pics gives them a bit more confidence.
happy cooking
chris…