Stobá (Dutch Antillean meat stew)

Stobá can be based on beef, but we opted for goat. You have to buy goat with lots of bones. Bones give flavor to a stew. I ended up buying 1,5 kilo goat, which seemed like a quarter of a goat. Chop the goat in pieces about 10 centimeters big.



Rub the meat with lime juice and dry the meat.



Fry the meat in oil until it browns.



Add: two chopped onions, 3 chopped cloves of garlic, 3 tomatoes (cubed), 1 big tablespoon tamarind juice, a little sugar, nutmeg and (don't leave this out!): 1 or 2 madame jeanette peppers.



Mix everything so the meat gets coated with all the spices.



Add enough water to cover the meat, add salt according to taste and simmer for at least 2 hours.



Add one green bell pepper cut in small chunks and one big sweet potato (cubed) and simmer for another half hour. At this point I added a small can of tomato paste for extra flavor.



Add a handful of pickled caper and simmer another 15 minutes.



When you're finished the meat should really fall off the bone. It's almost like a soup. Since the stew contains sweat potato you don't even have to cook rice. But it's good to serve with pickled red onion.



A rare photo of myself in my kitchen:

Callaloo (Trinidad)

Went to a Trinidad & Tobago restaurant yesterday: Trinbago (1e van Swindenstraat 44, Amsterdam). Ordered callaloo with beef.

From Wikipedia: "Callaloo is widely known throughout the Caribbean and has a distinctively Caribbean origin, created by African slaves using ideas of the indigenous people along with both African (okra) and indigenous (Xanthosoma) plants (See Palaver Sauce for the West African dish)."

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 medium onion
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons chopped celery
1/4 cup fresh thyme
1/2 cup chopped chives
15 okra, sliced
1/2 cup chopped west indian pumpkin (substitute butternut squash)
15-20 dasheen leaves, washed and coarsely chopped (or 1 bunch swiss chard and 1/2 bunch spinach)
1 cup coconut milk
1 maggi seasoning, cube plus
4 cups water or chicken stock
2 live blue crabs, cleaned and washed in lime juice (or 5-6 pieces salted beef or salted pigtail)
1 whole scotch bonnet pepper (Congo pepper)
2 tablespoons golden ray cooking margarine
1 teaspoon salt (if using maggi cube taste first before adding salt or the soup will be too salty.)

1 Put salted pork pieces in a pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil. Drain off this water. Repeat this process to draw off the excess salt from the salted meat.
2 Heat the oil in a large pot and add the onion, garlic, celery and fresh herbs. Sauté until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Add okras, pumpkin and dasheen leaves and sauté for another minute or so. Add the coconut milk and stock or water, crab and hot pepper.
3 Keep an eye on that hot pepper use one that is not bruised. You DO NOT want that pepper to burst while cooking. The heat from the burst pepper will overpower the other flavours.
4 Bring to a boil and reduce heat to a simmer. Cook uncovered for about 35 minutes.
5 Taste and add salt if needed.
6 Remove hot pepper and crab or meat, and swizzle the callaloo, or put in a blender or you can use an immersion type blender, and beat until smooth. Return the crab or meat pieces to the soup. Add the cooking margarine or butter. Simmer for 5 more minutes. Stir well.
7 Serve hot as a soup on it's own or as a side dish.