2. Quick Cook- Stew

After you've chosen your meat;

You will need 1. One big white onion or two small white onions
2. One medium sized tin of pureed tomatoes*
3. One tin/tube of tomato paste
4. Curry powder
5. Three hot/spicy chillies
6. Pinch of salt
7. One cube beef stock
8. Adobo or some other flavoured cooking salt
9. Spice of your choice (I usually use cayenne pepper but my mom swears by one or two bay leaf)
10. Cooking oil


Cut the steak into bite size pieces. Use a sharp knife to piece a hole in both sides of each piece. Rub a mixture of two teaspoons of curry powder, the adobo and beef stock into the beef. (If you have already prepared your beef ignore this step)

Place the beef into a small pan, add a 1/2 cup of water and put on the fire. You want the beef to absorb all those wonderful flavours.

While the beef is cooking, chop up the onion and the chili peppers. You can either leave the chopped onions in little pieces or blend it together with the chili peppers. I like to see the pieces of onion in my finished stew so I don't blend it. If you don't blend your onions, add the cut chili peppers to the can of pureed tomato and blend together.

Check that the beef is cooked by cutting a small portion and tasting. There should be no trace of blood in the juices and the beef should be tender. Separate the beef from the stock liquid.

Pour some cooking oil into a pot and place it on the fire. The oil should be just enough to spread evenly over the surface of the pan. Test that the oil has heated sufficiently by dropping a piece of onion into it. If the onion starts frying, you know its hot. When the oil is hot, add your onions and let it cook for about 5 minutes or until the onions brown. Add three teaspoons of tinned tomatoes and mix well. Let it cook for another 5 minutes.

Add the beef to the pot with two tablespoons of the beef stock. Mix it in and let it sit for a few minutes. This gives the beef time to soak up the onion and tomato flavours. After a few minutes, add all the beef stock and a cup of water. Add two shakes of the spice of your choice, one teaspoon of curry powder and a pinch of salt to taste. Mix them in, cover the pot with its lid and let the stew cook. Stir occasionally to prevent the bottom from burning. After 30 minutes the stew should have lost much of its watery consistence.

At this time it is up to you to decide how thick you want it to be. I usually use how fast the stew falls from a spoon to check. If it falls too fast, it's not cooked enough. If it clumps to the spoon so much that you have to shake it loose...well it's become more of a sauce than a stew but its still edible.


* I prefer canned pureed tomatoes because it is much easier to store than real tomatoes and it reduces cooking time. If you'd prefer using real tomatoes this is how you prepare them.
Cut four tomatoes into quarters and then into cubes.
Put them in the blender with half a teaspoon of salt and the cut chili peppers.
Blend until smooth.
Cook the rest of the stew as above but leave out the pinch of salt and reduce the amount of salt you use to season the beef.