The major ingredients for Clove Basil ‘Beef Stew’ includes Beef and Clove Basil leaves. Clove basil, Ocimum gratissimum is a plant with high nutritional value. It has anti oxidating and anti aging properties as well as ability to reduce inflammation and swelling. More so, it possess characteristic strong clove scent because of its high concentration of the chemical agent eugenol.

It is the major ingredient that produces the scent in pepper soup and in Nigeria, it is known as scent leaf. Some parts of Nigeria have local names for it. For instance, Yorubas call it ‘Efinrin’.

As a matter of fact, if you enjoy the Nigerian pepper soup, you would definitely love this Basil Beef stew.

COOKING TIME:20minutes
SERVES: 4

INGREDIENTS

4 pieces of medium cut cooked beef
5 clove Basil(Scent) leaves
1 medium sized onion
4 medium sized dried cayenne peppers
8 dried chilli peppers
1 wrap of knorr seasoning
2 cooking spoonful palm oil
1 cup of beef stock
Salt to taste

I used dried peppers for this stew because it makes the pepper seeds evident in the stew, gives the dark colour and thus, the uniqueness.

PREPARATION

Firstly, cook the beef to your taste as soft as possible using plain seasonings, salt, garlic, onions.

While cooking the beef, blend pepper to a not so fine particle size and soak in water for some minutes until ready for use.

Then, Chop the Basil leaves and set aside.

Set pot on cooker with medium heat and allow to dry. Pour in the palm oil, leave to get hot and pour in the diced onion. Endeavour to allow onion to fry for a minute after before you add the pepper.

To the cooking mixture, add the beef and beef stock and leave to cook for 5minutes.

Finally, Open the pot, stir the soup and sprinkle the Basil leaves. Cover and leave to cook for 5 minutes. After this 5minutes, you can put off your cooker. Stir and enjoy stew with rice.

All in all, do well to drop your comments. Your opinions are highly valued.