What’s Cooking: Brown & Red Stew

Red Stew Chicken with Channa/Chickpeas (Photo by Cynthia Nelson)
Red Stew Chicken with Channa/Chickpeas (Photo by Cynthia Nelson)

What’s Cooking is a series in which I answer questions and share advice about food and cooking that you have but may be too shy to ask.

Guyanese make two types of stews – brown and red. The most popular ingredient for these two types of stew is chicken, though we do make stews with other meats and seafood. In the Caribbean, mainly brown stews are made. The question I received was: what is the difference between a brown stew and a red stew?

Apart from the obvious difference in colour, the flavour of a brown stew differs from that of a red stew and vice versa. But let’s start by looking at what is a brown stew and what is a red stew.

Brown Stew Chicken Meal with Cassava (Photo by Cynthia Nelson)

A brown stew is a stew made by using some type of dark or brown colouring to give a signature colour and flavour to the dish – burnt sugar, browning, and cassareep are the preferred choices for this type of stew. A red stew gets its colour from either the use of tomato paste, or tomatoes, used alone or in combination with each other. While both types of stew can start out the same way – marinated with an herb paste such as green seasoning, some people like to make a distinction between the two by marinating brown stew ingredients for at least an hour, and simply seasoning red stew ingredients with salt and pepper to taste. Is there a difference in taste when prepped this way? Yes.

The brown-stew meat which would have been seasoned with more than just salt and pepper along with seasoning sauces like soy sauce or Guyanese-style Chinese sauce, tends to have a deeper flavour. The flavour of a brown stew is further enriched with the addition of burnt sugar which is essentially a dark caramel, browning or cassareep at the start of or during the cooking process. On other hand, while a red stew is equally flavourful, there is a lightness to the stew and the flavour of the main ingredient is more pronounced. The tomatoes or tomato paste adds umami and melds with the natural juices of the meat rather than asserting itself. In a case where the meat is only seasoned with salt and (black) pepper, then browned, the flavour picked up in the pot after the browning process, by sautéing finely chopped aromatics and herbs, elevates the quality of the stew.

Both types of stew are excellent in their own right; the differences are in the colour and flavour.

For a brown stew, my preference is to burn the sugar. Now when I say burn the sugar, I don’t mean to melt and cook it to the extent that is becomes black and then makes the stew bitter. To burn the sugar is to add sugar (preferably brown) to heated oil and let it melt until it starts to froth, as it froths, the bubbles will become large and develop a rich brown colour – that is the stage at which you want to add the meat. There’s going to a loud riotous noise in the pot as the meat is added, ah, the sound of cooking! You want to immediately toss the meat with the burnt sugar and let the two marry and cook until all the liquid has dried out before adding water to cook the meat and eventually make the sauce/gravy of the stew.

A further note on the burning of sugar: it is a task that at first can be challenging but easily mastered with time. As I said above, look for when the bubbles in the froth get large and the edges darken more than the middle. If you do not wait for this stage, then the stew can end up tasting sweet instead of that complex caramel flavour. Anything before the darkened edges is simply melted sugar.

Tips:

● When adding the seasoned meat to the burnt sugar, do not add the marinade at that time; shake off the excess liquid and add the meat alone. This will ensure that the flavour of the caramel impacts the meat, giving the brown stew its signature flavour.

● When the liquid has dried out after the initial stage of cooking the meat with the caramel, add the reserved marinade along with boiling water to cook the meat and make the sauce/gravy.

When making a red stew, you can choose to season the meat one of two ways – with green seasoning or your preferred herb paste, or, simply with salt and pepper to taste. Here’s what to do to cook the stew regardless of your seasoning option.

● Heat oil in a pan; shake off any excess liquid and brown the meat in batches until all are browned.

● Add finely chopped onions, celery, thyme, hot pepper, garlic and tomatoes and cook gently on low heat until softened. Raise heat, add meat to pot along with drippings from the meat resting and cook together for several minutes before adding enough boiling water to cook meat and make sauce/gravy for stew.

● If using tomato paste instead of tomatoes, then cook the tomato paste gently in the oil, toasting it until it gets a shade darker before adding the herbs, doing this helps to cut out a lot of the tartness of the tomato paste.

Tips:

● If you seasoned the meat with green seasoning, add the seasoning remaining from the bowl in which the meat was marinating along with boiling water to cook the stew and make the gravy/sauce.

● To thicken the gravy, some people lightly dust the meat with flour (particularly if making stew beef) before browning the meat so that when it is added back to the pot to cook, as the liquid reduces, the sauce/gravy thickens. Of course, a couple of potatoes added to the stew and mashed with the back of the pot spoon also does the job.

Whether you make or prefer brown or red stew, it’s all good.

Cynthia

cynthia@tasteslikehome.org

www.tasteslikehome.org