Caribbean Oxtail

Frankly, I wasn’t sure which one was better, my red wine braised oxtail, or this one. They are literally equally fabulous, definitely both worth keeping! No kidding, this melt-in-your-mouth super flavorful oxtail will be requested over and over.

Ingredients:

Oxtail pieces, 3lb ish, I bought giant oxtail pieces, so I used 5 of them, wash in salted vinegar water and rinse clean.

1 tomato, chopped

1 small onion, chopped

small bunch of parsley, leaves roughly chopped, save stem for later

1 jalapeno, sliced, seeds and all, in the end, you only taste very very mild warmth, don’t worry too much about the spice

1 green bell pepper, seeds removed and chopped

1 inch of fresh ginger, grated or finely chopped

about 2 TBSP of Worcestershire sauce

2 green onions, sliced

1 TBSP ketchup

2 TBSP packed brown sugar, white sugar will do too, if you don’t have brown sugar on hand

2 pieces of beef bullion cubes

2 bay leaves

1 can of coconut milk

Method:

Combine first 10 ingredients in a large bowl or ziploc bag, mix well to combine. Marinate in the fridge over night, or at least a few hours. I did 6 hours, worked wonderful.

In a large heavy bottom pot, heat up about 1 TBSP vegetable oil on medium high heat, sprinkle in brown sugar. Be patient, let it bubble up and become deeply golden brown. This step is crucial, keep a close eye on your sugar oil mixture, don’t let sugar burn. Otherwise you will have to restart. The deep caramelized color will give the final dish a rich color and deep flavor.

Carefully put in oxtail pieces to brown on all sides, shake off excess juices and vegetable pieces. If there are a few pieces of vegetable pieces stuck on the oxtail, no biggie, reserve all vegetables and juices.

Patiently let oxtail pieces brown on all sides, roughly 5 minutes per side. Don’t stress about sugar burning a bit at the bottom, it will come right off once the vegetables are added. Don’t crowd the pan, brown oxtail pieces in batches if needed to.

Once all oxtail pieces are browned, put all pieces back into the pot, add in all the vegetables along with the marinate juices into the pot. Stir to combine. Hand crush the beef bullion cubes and sprinkle all over the oxtail mixture. Add coconut milk and enough water to submerge oxtail pieces, add bay leaves. Throw in the reserved parsley stem and bring the pot to a boil.

Lower the heat to low and simmer with lid on for 3 to 4 hours. Stir and scrape the bottom bits of goodness once in a while and move oxtail pieces around to ensure every bit of the oxtail gets some loving.

Last 30 minutes, take lid off, raise heat to medium. At this point, the liquid in the pot shall have evaporated some, and becomes thicker. Keep the gravy boiling and keep reducing until desired thickness and taste for salt.

Serve over humble steamed rice, along side some cooling salad, you will be in heaven!