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. 

Jerk Pork

So I visited Jamaica for the very first time in September to celebrate my 25th birthday and boy was my taste buds grateful for that trip(HAHA). Every single food I tried was just AMAZING!!! So I will be trying out some of the foods I tried out there in an attempt to relive those savory mmhmm moments I had in Montego Bay.

Today we will be trying jerk pork(can use beef or lamb if you don't like pork). The ingredients are quite similar to the Jerk Chicken only difference here is the pork lol.

Ingredients:

• 2- 3 lbs of pork loins or pork chops or ribs 
• 6 scotch bonnet(hot Jamaican pepper, jalapeño can be used as substitute)
• 6 cloves of garlic
• 3 onions
• 2 tablespoons thyme
• 2 tablespoons  all spice
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons salt
• 2 tablespoons black pepper
• 2 teaspoon ginger
• 1 cup orange juice
• 1 cup white vinegar
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1 lime (juiced)

 

Optional Ingredients

• 1 teaspoon cinnamon(optional)
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg(optional)

Method:

1. Wash and chop all ingredients the vegetables don't need to be finely chopped since they will be blended soon.
2. Blend all ingredients with the exception of the pork to make your sauce
3. Season the pork with the jerk sauce and allow it to marinate for about 2hrs(if you are in a rush) or overnight(to get the pork to be well soaked with the seasoning)
4. If you have a charcoal grill this would be amazing on it BUT during winter time(LOL) just preheat your oven at 360 -400 degrees F(depending on how your oven is) and grill the pork until its well cooked. Keep brushing some jerk seasoning over the pork while its grilling/baking
5. Can be served with some dumplings, festival, fried rice,mac n cheese,jollof OR any dish of your choice OR as an appetizer!!

ENJOY!!!!!!!

I used ribs for this particular one and chopped some on pieces 

The stages of making the jerk pork 

Curry chicken

I tried this once & I liked but not as much as the other Jamaican recipes I have tried lol. But that's just me. But my cousin Crystal well oh she's a big curry chicken lover! Can be eaten with rice n peas or white rice,tried it with fried rice and jollof too lol.

Ingredients:

• 3 lbs of chicken
• 6 tablespoons of curry powder
• 4 teaspoons of thyme
• 1-2 cloves of garlic
• 3 stalks of scallion (aka spring onions)
• 1 teaspoon of ginger
• 2 scotch bonnet pepper(Jamaican hot pepper)
• 2 teaspoons of salt
• 2 teaspoons of black pepper
• 1 tablespoon cayenne pepper(optional)
• 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
• 2 cups of water
• 1 teaspoon of flour (use as a thickener for sauce)

Method: 

1. Wash the chicken with lime or lemon juice,chop the chicken into small pieces
2. Chop onions,scallions,garlic and pepper, rub the chicken with all ingredients excluding the water and potatoes allow the chicken to marinate in the fridge for 2 hours. 
3. Fry the chicken for 10minutes or until chicken is sealed.
4. Chop your potatoes then add to the chicken and water into a sauce pan, cover and allow the sauce to be thick(this would take about an hour or so).

Ps: I wanted my food to be ready quicker than the hour wait so I mixed half a teaspoon of flour and water and poured it in the mixture and about 15-20mins it thickened for me. 

Just squeezed lemon juice on it for the washing

Seasoned and ready for marinating

Chopped potatoes

Frying the chicken

Almost done frying

Water and potatoes added

Served with white rice,  fried plantain and steamed veggies

Jerk chicken

Summer is almost here(Woohoo) this chicken would be great for a nice barbecue outside. I can't wait to start grilling out again(LOL). This is a spicy but yet delicious chicken. The first time I ate this my lips were crying for mercy lol. But I still loved it!

Ingredients:

• 3 lbs of chicken
• 6 scotch bonnet(hot Jamaican pepper, jalapeño can be used as substitute)
• 6 cloves of garlic
• 3 onions
• 2 tablespoons thyme
• 2 tablespoons ground all spice
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons salt
• 2 tablespoons black pepper
• 2 teaspoon ginger
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon(optional)
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg(optional)
• 1 cup orange juice
• 1 cup white vinegar
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1 lime (juiced)

Method:

1. Wash chicken and chop in about 4 or 5 pieces and rub the lime all over it
2. Blend all ingredients with the exception of the chicken
3. Rub all ingredients on chicken & allow it to marinate overnight
4. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (204 degrees C)
5. Take some marinade out(this will be used for the coating of chicken as it's baking/grilling)
6. Bake  for an hour with constant turning & coating with your left over marinade until there is no more left over marinade
7. Serve with any dish of your choice. Goes with just about anything

Preparing the jerk chicken. It isn't so pretty but tastes so good lol

Half of the batch that was made

Rice and Peas

There is Jamaican restaurant by my house that serves delicious food and from eating there so many times I found my new love for Jamaican foods so I did most of my research and I learned how to make some of my favorites....Here's one of my favorites. Goes very well with curry shrimp and curry goat

Ingredients: 

• 3 cups of rice
•  1 cup of fresh kidney beans
•  1 uncut scotch bonnet pepper (1 jalapeno pepper may be used as a substitute)
•  1 tin (or one cup) of coconut milk
•  1 teaspoon of salt
•  1 teaspoon of black pepper
•  2 teaspoons of dried thyme

Method:

1. Wash beans and boil.
2. After 35mins of boiling the beans should be soft to the touch. Take 1 or 2 out if it crushes easily then it's ready 
3. Add coconut milk,salt,thyme,pepper & scotch bonnet.(the pepper remains uncut so as to not make the rice spicy, just give it a subtle peppery flavor)
4. Add rice,stir,cover with foil and allow to cook for about 40minutes

After adding everything to the beans. 

Curry Goat

My 2nd favorite Jamaican dish. When I first tasted this dish I wanted to be smart and find out the ingredients that was used for it by just tasting it. Well let's just say I failed LOL but hey that's all part of learning right? :-) Well finally after asking some people and adding my own I got the ingredients right. This goes very well with either white rice or rice n peas, I even had it with fried rice and jollof (YUM!!)

Ingredients:

• 2 pounds of goat meat (cubed) 
• 2 tablespoons of curry powder (I like mine with a lot of curry so you can use 2 teaspoons instead if you don't want too much curry)
• 2 diced onions
• 2 scotch bonnet pepper(Jamaican hot pepper)
• 2 teaspoons of thyme
• 4 cloves of garlic (optional for those who are not big fans of garlic)
• 1 teaspoon of grated ginger
• 1 teaspoon of butter
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 a pound of carrots (diced)  [Optional for those who would rather not have it in there]
• 1/2 a pound of potatoes (diced)[Also optional but the carrots and potatoes gives it the thickness like in the picture]

Method:

1. Blend all ingredients with the exception of the carrots and potatoes with half a cup of water, adding more water if all ingredients do not mix well enough
2. Wash goat meat very well and add the blended ingredients to it and let it marinate overnight (preferably) but if you want it fast just let it marinate for about an hour or two
3. Scrape off as much marinade as you can, it will be used for later
4. Fry the meat with butter and allow it to brown gently after 15mins transfer meat to a sauce pan add the potatoes and carrots and the scraped marinade and just enough water to cover the meat.



Best way to have curry goat with rice n peas,steamed veggies and some fried plantains

5. Let it boil then let it simmer until the meat is very tender. (this should take about 45mins to an hour)

Curry Shrimp

I love shrimp, fried, grilled, boiled no matter how it is cooked, I just love shrimp lol BUT curry shrimp has to be one of my absolute favorites.

Ingredients:

• 2 pounds of peeled and deveined shrimp
• 2 tablespoons of butter
• 2 tablespoons of curry powder
• 2 stalks of scallion(also known as spring onions)
• 2 onions
• 1 tomato(optional)
• 1 scotch bonnet pepper(Jamaican hot pepper)
• 1 teaspoon of cornstarch(if none, flour can be used...this thickens the sauce)
• 1/2 sweet green pepper 
• 1/2 sweet red or yellow bell pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Ps: You don't have to use all these bell peppers. They are optional, I used them because i love them :-).

Method:

1. Chop onions,scallions, peppers, tomato and garlic
2. Mix the shrimp in one bowl with one tablespoon of curry powder
3. Melt the butter in a sauce pan, add the other tablespoon of curry powder, fry for about a minute
4. Add the chopped vegetables, fry for about 2 minutes
5. Add the shrimps and let it simmer for about 5 minutes
6. Add water and cornstarch(flour) and let it cook for another 5-10 minutes
7. Enjoy with white rice, rice and peas, jollof or fried rice. :-)