By Kevin Johnson

I have always been a fan of the Food Network. In my youth, I would sit glued to the TV, watching different shows like Cutthroat Kitchen, Chopped, and MasterChef. The combination of my affinity for these shows and my family’s cooking ability is what sparked my love for cooking. On many Saturday mornings, I would wake early to watch cartoons and cook myself some breakfast. As I started to get better, I would branch out and cook more challenging food, like pasta, burgers, and steaks. I love trying to cook new things to expand my repertoire. So, when looking for something new to cook myself and some friends, I decided to try Jamaican oxtail stew, one of my favorite foods.     

Cooking oxtail was probably the most challenging thing I have cooked to date. It was a time-consuming task trying to find everything I needed for the oxtail. To source my ingredients, I used the recipe from Jamaican Cooking and Recipes. The recipe consisted of oxtail, browning sauce, bell pepper, scotch bonnet peppers, ginger, stock cubes, allspice or pimento, scallions, butter beans, tomato, thyme, and onion. I had no problem finding most of these items, but items like the scotch bonnet, pimento, and scallions were a struggle. For the scotch bonnet, I had to go to a Chinese market. I could not find scallions in all the grocery stores checked, so I settled for green onions, scallions’ more pungent cousin. And for some odd reason, I wasn’t able to find the pimento (or allspice) in any of the stores. It was probably in there, but I had and still have absolutely no Idea where. 

Now that I had all my ingredients, I was ready to start the prep. With the help of my mom, Amanda Johnson, I cut up all my vegetables. I washed the meat with water, vinegar, and lemon. Next, I seasoned the meat with salt, pepper, Tony Chachere’s creole seasoning, and a little bit of adobo. I added my vegetables and the browning sauce. I let the meat marinate overnight, and it was ready to cook. Since the recipe I was using had cooking instructions for pressure cooking, I had to find some instructions for a standard pot. I used a video made by Deddy’s Kitchen on YouTube. Even with the video, I still had to improvise during the cooking process.

I started by browning the meat, trying to sweat out some of the juices. It took about 17-20 minutes on medium-low to fully brown the oxtail. My method differed from Deddy’s method. He browned his oxtail on high for about 20 minutes. I did not try to replicate his method, because I felt that my additional use of browning and lack of experience would lead me to burn the meat. Once the meat was sweated and browned, I added the vegetables used in the marinade, an additional stock cube, and water to the pot. I left it to cook covered for about two hours. I would check every 20-25 minutes to make sure there was enough water in the pot. After the two hours, the oxtail was fully cooked. I added three cans of butterbeans to the pot and let everything stew for five more minutes. The oxtail was finally done and ready to serve.

Not everything that I attempted to make ended up on the final menu. In addition to the oxtail I, I wanted to bake some coco bread, which is a Jamaican coconut milk bread. I am not an experienced baker, so I knew that it was going to be challenging to try and replicate the soft and pillowy bread. I used the recipe from Feed and Teach on YouTube. The recipe itself was quite simple, consisting of flour, coconut milk, butter, yeast, sugar, and a pinch of salt. I questioned the recipe, because he didn’t use any eggs. I didn’t listen to the instructions fully and used two eggs as well. The addition of my eggs may have been the problem. Instead of soft, pillow-like rolls, I was left with dense, bland bread rolls. Though the rolls weren’t officially on the menu, I still gave my taste testers a choice to try them. 

The first person to taste the oxtail was my mom. I could tell that she enjoyed it because she went back for a second help after she finished her first. She thought that the meat was flavorful and liked my blend of seasonings. After my mom tasted it, I invited Sebastian Eberl (’24) and Braden Bell (’24) to my house to come try. It was nice having friends over to bond over food and good conversation. 

Both Bell and Eberl enjoyed the oxtail. I asked both of them their favorite and least favorite parts of the meal. Eberl said, “I liked how flavorful the meat was.” Bell commended me on the cooking of the meat, saying it was very tender, and that “It reminds me of other oxtail that I had from a restaurant.” Eberl and Bell said they would change how the meat was cut, as it was a bit challenging to eat because the oxtail was in large chunks. Looking back, I agree with both of them. I wish that I had gone to a butcher and gotten smaller cut pieces for a better, more tender result. I would also not add as much browning next time, as the flavor was slightly overpowering to me. Overall, I feel the oxtail was a success. I can’t wait to give both the oxtail and coco bread another try to perfect the recipe.  

All photos by Kevin Johnson.