← Nouns Cooking · Caribbean

Ingredients

• 1.5 kg beef chuck or shin (or a mix with oxtail or goat), cut into 5 cm pieces
• 1 tbsp Vegetable oil
• 150 ml Cassareep (cassava syrup)
• 2 Cinnamon stick
• 6 whole cloves
• 1 strip of orange peel (5 cm)
• 1 Onion, chopped
• 4 cloves Garlic, minced
• 4 sprigs Thyme
• 2 wiri wiri or scotch bonnet peppers, left whole
• 3 tbsp Brown sugar
• 1½ tsp Salt
• 1.5 l hot water

Method

1. Heat the oil in a large heavy pot over medium-high heat and brown the beef in batches for 6–8 min, until well coloured.
2. Return all the meat with the onion and garlic and cook for 3 min, stirring.
3. Add the cassareep, cinnamon, cloves, orange peel, thyme, whole peppers, sugar, salt and enough hot water to cover the meat. Stir and bring to a boil.
4. Cover and simmer gently for 2½ hours, stirring every half hour, until the beef is falling apart and the sauce is dark and slightly syrupy. Add a splash of water if it gets too thick.
5. Taste and balance with more sugar or salt; it should be sweet, salty, spiced and peppery all at once. Remove the cinnamon, peel and peppers and serve with thick slices of bread.

Tips

• Cassareep (boiled-down cassava juice) is sold in Caribbean shops; it is what makes pepperpot, so do not skip it.
• Pepperpot keeps well: Guyanese cooks reheat it to a boil every day and it deepens in flavour.

Sources

Written in our own words after cross-checking these recipes:

CaribbeanPot.com 196 flavors