Jamaican Night

As my husband's family is from Jamaica, my mother-in-law and I decided that once a month we should do Jamaican night so that the kids will get more exposure to that part of their heritage. This weekend we made Jamaican oxtail. Although I was a bit skeptical, it actually turned out to be an AWESOME dish!

The night before I marinated the oxtail in:
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tbsp. black peppercorns (whole)
1/2 finely minced onion
2 tbsp. allspice
4 finely minced cloves garlic
1/2 tsp. sea salt
2 tbsp. thyme


The day of cooking, we browned them. You can do this in a pan, but we did it in the broiler for the time to pass more quickly. We then put them in a pot to boil, along with about 3 tsp. tomato paste, a diced tomato, and more of the same seasonings. A couple of cups of water, and we cooked them in a pressure cooker until they were tender enough to be falling off of the bone. M and my husband then made spinners, which are basically flour and water "spun" into little dumpling like concoctions and cooked in with the oxtail.

While the oxtail was cooking, we boiled some lima beans that had been soaking overnight. Once the oxtail was nearly cooked through, we added the lima beans in with it. We served the resulting dish over rice. It was delicious as you can see by M digging in below. She is usually skeptical of any kind of meat other than "chicken" (which can mean anything from salmon to pork chops) but she loved it even though she knew it was oxtail!