Pepper Pot (Guyana) - Oceanian Recipe

Pepper Pot (Guyana)

🌍 Oceanian, Guyanese Difficulty: ●●●○○

Pepper pot is the national dish of Guyana and traces directly to the Arawak and Warao peoples who used cassareep (from bitter cassava) as a natural preservative — the original "perpetual stew" that Amerindians could maintain indefinitely.

Ingredients

• 1 kg mixed meats: beef, pork, and/or chicken, cut in chunks
• 250 ml cassareep (cassava-derived dark sauce — essential and irreplaceable)
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 4 whole cloves
• 2 wiri wiri peppers or Scotch bonnets
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tsp thyme
• Salt to taste
• Water to cover

Method

1. Combining — Combine all ingredients in a heavy pot; add enough water to cover meat.
2. Step 2 — Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 1.5–2 hours, stirring occasionally.
3. Thing — The cassareep will darken everything to a deep mahogany color as it reduces.
4. Tasting — Taste and adjust with salt, sugar, and additional cassareep as needed.
5. Thing — The stew should be thick and very dark, with a complex bitter-sweet flavor from the cassareep.
6. Serving — Serve with bread or rice. Pepper pot can be reheated daily — it keeps for weeks if brought to boil each day.

Tags: mixed meats: beef, cassareep, cinnamon stick, cloves, wiri wiri peppers or scotch bonnets · Source: Brittani's Almanac