Gather your mise en place; get together all of the equipment needed for the recipe and gather your ingredients.

The night before cooking, soak your beans in water (at least double the amount of water as you have beans). Drain the water and rinse the beans.

Dice the onion and finely mince the garlic.

Remove the leaves from the cilantro stems, and chop the leaves roughly.

Cut the beef into chunks about 4 centimetres cubed.

Preheat a large heavy bottomed pot (such as a dutch oven) over medium high heat. Add the beef and cook until seared on all sides.

Add the onions and garlic, and continue to cook for about 5 more minutes, stirring as needed to keep everything from sticking to the bottom of the pot.

Add the strained beans to the pan, bay leaves, half of the cilantro, pepper and salt to taste, and add enough water to cover everything by about 1 inch.

Bring the stew to a low boil and then turn it down to a simmer. Let cook, partially covered for about 2 – 3 hours, until all of the meats are tender and the flavours have melded together. Stir occasionally to make sure nothing is sticking to the bottom, and add additional water as needed.

Season with more pepper and salt to taste as needed, and add the rest of the cilantro before serving.