Recipes | I've Been Cooking

Daraba

Daraba is a hearty Central African okra and peanut stew with beef and dried fish, simmered with tomatoes, onions, garlic, and spinach, then served over rice. Rich, silky, and mildly spicy, it balances savory depth with the trademark okra-thickened texture.

🇹🇩 Chad$$

Sancoche

Sancoche is a hearty Caribbean one-pot stew loaded with salted pigtail, chicken, pigeon peas, coconut milk, and a medley of root vegetables and green bananas. Rich, savory, and gently spiced, it’s comfort food meant for sharing.

🇹🇹 Trinidad and Tobago$$

Torborgee

Torborgee is a rich, spicy Liberian palm-oil stew built around bitter balls (African eggplant), aromatic onions and garlic, and a hearty mix of beef, smoked fish, and dried shrimp, served over rice. It’s deeply savory with a pleasant bitterness balanced by heat from habanero.

🇱🇷 Liberia$$

Caldo de Mancarra

Caldo de Mancarra is a rich, comforting West African peanut stew from Guinea-Bissau made with tender chicken simmered in a savory peanut-tomato base, aromatics, and spinach. Served over rice with a squeeze of lime, it’s hearty, aromatic, and deeply satisfying.

🇬🇼 Guinea-Bissau$$

Piton Pepper Pot

A rich, island-style beef and vegetable stew from Saint Lucia, simmered with Scotch bonnet heat, coconut milk, and fragrant thyme and allspice. Tender beef chuck, okra, pumpkin, and callaloo create a silky, hearty one-pot meal with tropical depth.

🇱🇨 Saint Lucia$$

Tacho Macaense

Tacho Macaense is a rich Macanese winter stew that braises mixed cured and fresh pork with Napa cabbage, daikon, carrots, dried shiitakes, and tofu skin in a sweet-salty soy and rice-wine broth scented with star anise and bay. Comforting, celebratory, and deeply savory.

🇲🇴 Macau$$$

Ital Vegetable Stew

A hearty, coconut-scented Jamaican Ital vegetable stew loaded with root vegetables, okra, callaloo, and red kidney beans simmered with thyme, pimento, and Scotch bonnet for warming island flavor. 100% plant-based, nourishing, and deeply comforting.

🇯🇲 Jamaica$

Or Lam

Or Lam is a fragrant Lao beef stew with lemongrass, galangal, eggplant, and mushrooms, thickened with toasted sticky rice powder and finished with dill and holy basil. Traditionally served with sticky rice.

🇱🇦 Laos$$

Saltah

Saltah is a traditional Yemeni bubbling stew topped with foamy whipped fenugreek (hulba). This version features tender lamb simmered with tomatoes, potato, okra, aromatics, and warm spices, finished with cilantro, green chili, and lemon.

🇾🇪 Yemen$$

Molokhia

A classic Egyptian/Levantine molokhia: tender jute mallow simmered in savory stock and finished with a sizzling garlic–coriander tasha, served alongside vermicelli rice, lemon wedges, and warm pita.

🇪🇬 Egypt$$

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