Jamaican Stew Peas

In true Jamaican manipulation of syntax and the Queen’s English, all beans and pulses are called peas, irrespective of whether they are beans, lentils, or legumes. In the category of bean dishes, Jamaica’s "stew peas" ranks very high on our list of perfect comfort foods. A thick and substantial stew made with red kidney beans and coconut milk, with the addition of fresh beef, salted beef, and pig tail, stew peas is a rich, creamy, and salty stew that develops its unique flavor by simmering for hours on the stovetop. Typical seasonings like scallion, garlic, thyme, and Scotch bonnet enhance flavor, while little flour dumplings called “spinners” finish this hearty dish. Always served with plain steamed white rice and the trusty sides of avocado and fried ripe plantain, this is a truly divine, albeit filling, meal.  

As with many one-pot Jamaican recipes, the origin of dishes like stew peas can be traced back to our colonial legacy as a plantation economy. Enslaved Africans, who brought their methods of food preparation with them, used ingenuity and creativity to blend traditional African culinary techniques with the local ingredients available to them. The merging of African and European colonial traditions gave birth to many delicious foods—stew peas is one example of a truly distinctive dish that is rich in Jamaican culture.

In African traditions, dishes were mostly prepared as one-pot meals using traditional cooking utensils like a three-legged iron pot, grater, wooden turn stick (spoon), and wooden mortar and pestle (often used for pounding foods like corn, coffee, cassava, and yam). Meals were cooked simply, often over an open flame in a central open kitchen area. Families would gather after a hard day's work to break bread together and share in the community of each other’s company. 

But that was not the only reason that meals were communal. Under British law, plantation owners were obligated to provide the enslaved people with an allowance of salted meat or fish at least once per year. This allowance was so meager that shared meals were more of a necessity than a luxury, and often the only way to stretch insufficient ingredients. For the enslaved, daily fare was scarce, modest and, whenever possible, hearty.

A light breakfast of cornmeal pap or mashed cassava or yam and molasses water, for example, was consumed before dawn. Between the hours of twelve and two, a meal of simple roasted provisions and a piece of roasted salted fish was common, while the main meal of the day, usually supper, consisted of a hearty soup and a side dish of plantains or yams mashed in a mortar and pestle. Rudimentary kitchen facilities, rustic cooking utensils, and lack of time made the preparation of meals a simple and efficient activity that centered around a single (often shared) pot over an open flame.  

In addition to working grueling hours on the estate, the enslaved were also expected to supplement their diets with ingredients they grew for themselves, like ground provisions, pulses, and vegetables. Determined to improve the quality of their lives, many of the enslaved even reared their own pigs and would slaughter and preserve the meat, making corned pork, salt pork, and cured pig's tail. This cured and salted meat was a highly valued commodity and was bartered for other goods, sold to larger plantations, or traded at weekly Sunday markets.  

In the post-colonial Jamaica of today, fresh, corned, cured, pickled, smoked, brined, roasted, grilled, or stewed pork is still very popular; it appears regularly in both simple and elaborate forms, at daily meals and bigger feasts and festivities, in both rural and urban areas alike. Almost all stews, soups, or one-pot dishes will include pickled or salted pig tail. When cured in perfectly-spiced brine, it makes a flavorful addition to traditional starch- and vegetable-based stews and soups, giving them a deep smoky and salty flavor. 

It is well known that all Jamaican males over a certain age believe that stew peas is an essential requirement to a “balanced” diet and must be consumed at least once per week. Some years ago, our father and his “compadres” created a group called the ROMEO Club. It’s not what you think—ROMEO is in fact an acronym for Retired Old Men Eating Out (go figure). They typically meet on Friday afternoons, the prerequisite being that they must eat Jamaican food at a local restaurant and the meal must not cost more than $25 each. Needless to say, stew peas must be on the menu at any of the Jamaican establishments they choose to visit on their weekly jaunts. 

One fateful week a few years ago, the ROMEO club came to lunch at our newly opened restaurant in Kingston. As they say in Jamaica, “What a attaclapse!!!”  ("What a disaster!") It was a great source of uproar, dissent, and contention that we dared to not have stew peas and rice on our Friday lunch menu. It was such a hullabaloo and cause for great discontent that we have always suspected that the only reason they stayed to dine with us that day was because of the “family” connection. Suffice it to say that we have learned our lesson, and if we are ever lucky enough to get a call to host Friday lunch for the local chapter of the ROMEO club again, stew peas will most certainly be on the menu that day!