Oxtail

Today I will be trying another Jamaican dish, Oxtail.

Ahhh so who else loves oxtail,rice n peas and fried plantains like me?

This recipe takes a while to cook simply because oxtail is extremely hard and you need it to be very very soft, I mean fall off the bone kind of soft.....

It is often served with rice n peas or white rice, but could be eaten with fried rice, Jollof, mac n cheese.

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs of oxtail
• 3 teaspoons of lime/lemon juice
• 1 onion
• 2 tomatoes
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1/2 scotch bonnet pepper (Jamaican hot pepper)
• 2 scallions (also known as spring onions)
• 4 teaspoons thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch 
• 2 tablespoons water
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon all spice seasoning salt (I use lawry's seasoning)
• 3-4 cups of water
• 1/2 lb of carrots (optional)
• 1 tin of broad beans (also known as butter beans, optional)

Some people like to add browning sauce to this recipe to give it that extra brown color. If you would like to use that I will suggest using about 2 tablespoons.(but use your own discretion as to how much will be needed)

Method: 

1. Chop all your ingredients (garlic, onion,tomatoes, and scallions)
2. Add the lime/lemon juice and toss
3. Season the oxtail with the scallions, garlic,thyme, seasoning salt and scotch bonnet pepper.

WAYS to BROWN OXTAILS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F(177 degrees C), sprinkle 1 tablespoonful of oil in a baking sheet, line up the oxtail in the baking sheet and bake oxtail until its brown and tender
2. OR add a tablespoon of brown sugar to a large saucepan, when it browns(almost looks burnt) add the oxtails, constantly stirring so each piece of meat gets evenly coated with the brown sugar or is browned completely
3. Add in your onions, tomatoes,carrots, and water. Reduce the heat for which you are using to cook because this is where the oxtail stays on fire till it's softened (usually takes about 2-3hrs...NO I AM NOT KIDDING), stir it occasionally
4. Mix the cornstarch with 2 tablespoons of water then add to oxtails(this serves as a thickner for the sauce, but you can omit this part if you want)
5. Add in your beans and allow it to simmer for an extra 10mins
6. Serve with white rice with some fried plantains or rice n peas, fried rice or even jollof rice

PS: Please make sure you keep an eye on it, confession: I fell asleep once making this and all the SAUCE DRIED UP.(SADDEST OXTAIL DAY LOL)

Believe it or not this is actually 2lbs of oxtail. Its amazing how small it is but yet so expensive lol

Chopped vegetables on top, seasoned oxtail on the bottom

As you can probably tell this is an extremely fatty oxtail, try to get the kind with little to no fat at all

Before going into the oven for browning

Brown sugar for the other method of browning

Brown sugar

Brown sugar method of browning

Oven browning(sorry for the poor quality picture)



Brown sugar browning method



All ready to continue the other steps

Water,carrots,tomatoes,onions



Ready for the long wait process. 

The white stuff you see is the cornstarch mixture



Add beans and allow to simmer for a while.