Stew given to Castro, occasionally causes difficulty (3,6)
I believe the answer is:
hot potato
'difficulty' is the definition.
(I know that hot potato is a type of situation)
'stew given to castro occasionally' is the wordplay.
'stew' becomes 'hotpot' (I've seen this before).
'given to' says to put letters next to each other.
'occasionally' indicates alternate letters (letters taken at regular intervals or occasions).
The alternating letters of 'castro' are 'ato'.
'hotpot'+'ato'='HOT POTATO'
'causes' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for hot potato that I've seen before include "Situation likely to cause trouble, like thermal spud" , "Troublesome situation of sultry spud" , "Controversial issue (colloq.)" , "Awkward thing" , "tricky case" .)