Channeling a Jamaican Grandmother through food

A good friend of mine, who happens to be from Kingston, just lost her much-loved elderly mother after a long illness. Lately, she's been stopping by our house to drop off the cookies and cakes that people are bringing to express their condolences - she can't eat them, as she's diabetic.

All this is to say that I think she might appreciate some home-cooked Jamaican food from a friend in memory of her mother (I imagine it would be appreciated even if it isn't the world's most authentic.) Last year, she saw me coming home from Peoria Packing with a whole oxtail, and we had a long excited conversation about how wonderful oxtail stew is. I've never tried a specific Jamaican recipe before, but I have a feeling it isn't that much different than what I do already. I was hoping the wisdom of LTH would help me vet some recipes for me and see if they're relatively authentic (or find better ones if they're not.)

http://www.jamaican-recipes.com/jamaicanoxtail.html

I also picked up a couple of ripe plantains, some kidney beans and rice, and some calalloo, here's what I've found for those:

http://uktv.co.uk/food/recipe/aid/513946
http://eatjamaican.com/recipes/riceandpeas-recipe.html
http://eatjamaican.com/recipes/Jamaican-steamed-callaloo.html

Feedback?

I don't have a Jamaican grandmother, but one of my mom's best friend's/ my sister's godmother is Jamaican. One of my fondest food memories from growing up was of the Jamaican curry chicken she routinely made for us. I never got the recipe, but the ones from the sites you've noted don't look far off from what I remember--the curry chicken we had was always made with wings, medium spicy and very peppery.

Probably not very helpful...all I know about Jamaican food.

You know I'm a sucker for the beef patties at Carribbean American Bakery. Not sure they're diabetic-friendly, but they're tasty comfort food.

If you're committed to homemade, this recipe from the NYTimes for Jamaican beef patties seems fairly authentic.

Thank you both for your feedback. It did run through my mind that I'd be better off running down the street for food cooked by actual Jamaicans. At any rate, I cooked up the above recipes, portioned some out for our dinner, packed it up and dropped it off. My neighbor recieved it with grace and enthusiasm, and later called and asked, laughing, "are you sure you're not Jamaican?" (if you've met me, you know how funny this is.)

Well-recieved though the food might have been, here's my own assessment: The oxtail recipe is pretty good, not that different from what I've eaten at the restaurants on Howard St. I would improve it by flouring the oxtails and browning them first, and using stock for the cooking liquid. I'd also give the aromatics a quick saute before dumping them in. At the last minute, I couldn't find broad beans and had to sub limas, but I think they worked OK.


The rice and peas didn't do it for me: I subbed-in low-fat coconut milk (knowing my friend's aversion to anything unhealthy) and it seemed to me to be overpoweringly coconutty and a bit gloppy. It's possible that I don't have a correct frame of reference, but the rice and peas I've eaten at local restaurants didn't have an overpowering coconut flavor. Better knife skills would probably help, I also didn't see the point of sticking the whole pepper on top; it didn't seem to offer anything to the rice.


The callalo, OTOH, is something I'm definitely going to make again - it's a beautiful spinach-y green, but took to a fairly hard cooking pretty well. Again, I'd have sauteed the aromatics and maybe minced them a bit finer. Sparky pronounced it "too spicy," but though this is a flavorful prep, I could barely discern the minced scotch bonnet.


Baked plantains were incredibly easy and not as slimy as I find their fried counterparts: I will also be doing this again. I'm generally not a fan of ripe plantains, nice to know I like this version.


I also tried this recipe for Jamaican hardo bread with moderate success: it would have improved with a slightly longer final rise, but gave me that wonderful, non-styrofoamy white bread that's my preference for BBQ (I know, anathema to Q lovers, but I prefer its slightly more substantive texture to Wonder Bread) Next time we run out of sandwich bread, I'll be making a batch.

It all looks good. You are great friend to put in so much work to create so many dishes.

Thanks, brandon! As I said to my neighbor, cooking is my hobby - least I could do is use it to maybe offer a bit of comfort - it was fun, and I learned quite a lot!

brandon_w wrote:It all looks good. You are great friend to put in so much work to create so many dishes.

Agreed, a great friend and the dishes look delicious.