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Oxtail with butter beans
Jamaican slow-braised oxtail in a dark, sticky pimento gravy with soft butter beans
Oxtail started out as a cheap cut in Jamaica and is now the Sunday-best dish that cookshops in Kingston sell out of first, and that people across the diaspora queue for on Saturdays. The bony pieces are seasoned overnight, browned hard, then braised slowly for hours with pimento, thyme and whole scotch bonnet until the meat slides off the bone and the gravy turns glossy with gelatine. Butter beans go in near the end to soak up the gravy. Serve with rice and peas, steamed cabbage and fried plantain. Chef's tip: cook it a day ahead, chill, and lift off the hard layer of fat before reheating; the gravy is cleaner and the flavour deeper.
- Total time
- 235 min
- Difficulty
- medium
- Serves
- 4
Ingredients
For the seasoning
For the braise
Method
0/8 doneStep 1: Rinse 3 ⅓ lb oxtail and pat dry. Rub with 1 onion, 4 spring onions (escallion), 6 cloves garlic, ¾ in fresh ginger, 6 sprigs fresh thyme, 2 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tbsp browning sauce (burnt sugar sauce), 1 tsp salt and 1 tsp ground black pepper. Cover and marinate in the fridge for at least 4 hours, or overnight.
Step 2: Scrape the onion and herbs off the meat and keep them. Pat the oxtail dry.
Step 3: Heat 3 tbsp vegetable oil in a large heavy pot over a medium-high heat. Brown the oxtail in two batches for 4–5 minutes per side, until deeply browned. Don't crowd the pot or the meat will steam instead of browning.
20 minStep 4: Return all the meat to the pot with the reserved onion and herbs, 12 pimento (allspice) berries and 2 tbsp tomato purée. Stir for 2 minutes.
2 minStep 5: Pour in 6 ¼ cups hot water to cover, add the whole 1 scotch bonnet pepper, bring to the boil, then cover and simmer over a low heat for 2 hours 30 minutes, stirring every 30 minutes and adding hot water if it runs low. Common mistake: rushing it; oxtail needs the full time, and if the meat doesn't pull easily from the bone, it simply needs longer.
150 minStep 6: Add 1 carrot and simmer for 20 minutes, uncovered, until the meat is falling off the bone.
20 minStep 7: Stir in 14 oz butter beans and simmer for 10 minutes more, until the gravy is thick and glossy. If it is still thin, stir in 1 tbsp cornflour mix and bubble for 1 minute.
10 minStep 8: Lift out the scotch bonnet and thyme stalks, skim off any fat from the surface, taste for salt and rest for 10 minutes before serving.
10 min
Nutrition per serving
- Calories
- 610 kcal
- Protein
- 52 g
- Carbs
- 18 g
- Fat
- 36 g
- Fibre
- 5 g
Nutrition values are estimates.
KrazyBadal
Good to know
- How long does oxtail with butter beans take?
- About 235 minutes in total: 25 minutes to prepare and 210 minutes to cook.
- How many people does it serve?
- 4 as written. Change the servings above the ingredients and every amount scales to match.
- Can I make it ahead?
- Yes. It keeps well, so you can cook it earlier in the day or the day before and reheat it.
- What can I use instead of onion?
- 2 shallots per onion.
- What can I use instead of spring onions (escallion)?
- Chives, or a little finely sliced onion.
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