Curried Oxtail
Ingredients:
around 3 lbs of oxtails
Sea Salt
Coarse black pepper
2tbs olive oil
2 large onions
4 cloves garlic(minced)
2 MOA scotch bonnets
4 Tbs of Jamaican curry powder
3 Tbs tomato paste
3 Tbs flour
2 cups coconut milk
3 cups beef broth
1 large sweet potato (cut into about 1/2" strips)
4 carrots (I put them through a grater to make this long strips and then cut them in half)
Juice of a lime
2 cups Basmati rice
green onions
The Curry powder:
Ingredients:
1/4 cup coriander seed
2 Tbs cumin seed
2 Tbs mustard seed
2 Tbs anise seed
1 Tbs allspice berries
5 Tbs ground turmeric
I added all the seeds/berries into the skillet and toasted on medium heat for about 10 mins. Basically wait for the color to darken. The seeds will give off a lot of aroma and some of them will begin popping. I grinded them all in my spice grinder then added the turmeric and grinded a little longer. It filled up 2 old spice containers.
To begin, I seasoned the oxtails will the salt and pepper and browned them in a skillet over medium-high heat in the olive oil. Once they were browned I set them aside on a plate and deglazed the pan with some of the beef broth. Dump the drippings from the pan in your dutch oven. I don't have one so I put it in our crockpot.
In the skilled add a little more olive oil and the onions. Brown the onions over medium-high heat then add the garlic and the peppers, and cook for another minute. Add the curry powder and stir it in thoroughly. Then, add the flour and tomato paste and stir it in. Once that is stirred in add the coconut milk and stir it up really well.
Now add the curry mix, the beef broth, and the oxtails to the crockpot and let it simmer for about 3hrs (or until the meat is falling off the bone). In the crockpot it took a little longer than it would in a dutch oven. With about 30 minutes left to cook add the sweet potatoes and carrots, so they will reach the desired tenderness.
About the same time you add the potatoes and carrots start making the rice. I made a Caribbean rice.
Rice ingredients:
the 2 cups of basmati rice
1 can of red beans
1 qt of water
2 cups of chicken broth
1/2 cup of coconut milk
2 tsp of fresh thyme leaves
1/2 tsp ground allspice
2 green onions
1/2 cup onion
2 garlic cloves minced
1 tsp black pepper
1 1/2 tsp of kosher salt
1 MOA Scotch bonnet cut open and deseeded
1 tsp brown sugar
Bring the water, chicken broth, and coconut milk to a boil with the beans. Once its boiling, add the other ingredients. Bring to a boil again, and then cover and reduce the heat. Should cook in about 15-20 mins. I could eat a bowl of this rice all by itself. Perfect flavor and spice.
Once oxtails and veggies are ready, put a couple of scoops of the rice in a bowl and add an oxtail or 2 and spoon some of the curry mix onto the whole thing, along with some chopped up green onions. Don't forget the sweet potatoes and carrots too.
Dig in!
I thoroughly enjoyed this meal. As I already said, the rice alone is so good to eat, but the flavors that come out of that curried oxtail are fantastic. Oxtails don't have a whole lot of meat on them, but simmered into the curry mix for hours release some great flavors. You just have to cook them long enough to tenderize them because they can be pretty tough if not. I am not the biggest fan of sweet potatoes normally, but cook in that mixture they tasted awesome! They came out with a great texture, and when you tear a little of the beef off and get a forkful of rice with it.....
Banana Fritter with Mango Rum Sauce
Fritter Ingredients:
2 cups of mashed overripe bananas (took 5 bananas)
3 Tbs brown sugar
1/4 tsp Nutmeg
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
pinch of salt
1 cup flour
2 Tbs vegetable oil
powdered sugar
Mash the bananas in a mixing bowl and add all the spices and stir. Now add the flour and stir it up some more. Heat the vegetable oil in pan on medium-high heat and spoon the batter out in about 2-3 circles. Let them cook for a minute or so and flip them over. Give them another minute or so and remove and set on a paper towel on a plate. Just push on the middle and see if any batter squeezes out. If not they are done.
Mango rum sauce ingredients:
2 mangos (cut them up into about 1" squares)
2 Tbs butter
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup Puerto Rican rum
1 Tbs juice from a lime
2 Aji Pineapple peppers deseeded and diced up
Melt the butter in sauce pan and then add the mangos. Cook them over medium-high heat until they start giving up their juice (about 3-5 minutes). Then add the other ingredients and cook until the juices thicken up and the rum has cooked down. Once its ready spoon some on the fritters.
I also made some candied pecans to chop up onto the fritters. Just melt 4 Tbs of butter in a sauce pan, then add the pecans and coat them. Then add 4 Tbs of brown sugar and 1/2 tsp of salt and stir it around being sure to coat all the pecan. Let it cook down a little and spread them on parchment paper to cool. Then just chop them up and spread on the fritters and sauce.
Sprinkle a little powdered sugar on top of the plate and go to town
Enjoy!
I was thrilled with how these turned out. While they look a lot like pancakes, the flour really only helps bind them together. The bananas really shine through. The sauce and pecans go great with the whole thing. I really liked how the peppers mixed with the sauce too. Not really hot, but you knew they were there. Overall, top notch meal.
