Stew is a perfect dish for a cold day, coming inside after spending sometime fighting the cold winds and having that savoury aroma grab your nose and stir your appetite can take most of us back to the days of our childhood. Mind you for some that journey is much shorter than for others.

What you put into a stew is all up to you; stews are a great way to use root vegetables, potatoes, turnips and carrots, for example and onions and cabbages add a distinct flavour and goodness to the mix. A stew can be a vegetarian delight or satisfy the meat eater’s hunger.

Stews are the perfect on pot meal and can be made in a slow cooker or a lrge soup or stew pot. I make them both ways.

Spicy Chicken Stew:

Ingredients;

2 chicken legs with skin removed

1 cup shredded cabbage

1 large carrot sliced

1 medium turnip diced

1 medium cooking onion sliced

2 gloves garlic

1 tbsp dried crushed chilies

Seas salt and black pepper to taste

½ tsp Hot sauce, I used Chamomile Desjardin hot sauce which is a mixture of habanero, scotch bonnet and jalapeno peppers with pomegranate, garlic, rosemary, coriander, cumin.

3 cups water

½ tsp olive oil

Preparation:

Add olive oil to large stock pot

Heat, add onions, crushed chilies and garlic

Cook 2 minutes

Add water and chicken

Bring to boil

Cook 30 minutes

Add remaining ingredients,

Cook 30 minutes.

You can add seas salt, black pepper and extra hot suce to taste, if you wish, however, I always recommend a taste test first, you do not want to overheat your food and thus be unable to enjoy it.

Hot sauces add extra flavour to a meal but unless you are used to them proceed carefully. If you do not know the hot sauce, taste test a very small amount first to be sure you want to add it.