Over the weekend my mother made some delicious oxtail stew. I slurped up the soup/stew base and noshed on the oxtails quietly with an extreme amount of guilt. Normally I'd sling back oxtails like it were broccoli or brussel sprouts, but all my marathon preparation and running has me feeling as if oxtails don't quite make winning race formula. I should be eating fish, veggies, chicken and avoiding the hard to digest red-meats, pork and oxtail according to training know-it-all's. And I'll tell you this - I can't wait until the race is over so I can fire all the know-it-alls and sit in my mama's warm kitchen guilt-free.

In the meantime I figured Oxtail Stew isn't the kind of dish shared by all cultures and people, but anyone wanting to try eating or cooking can start with these two recipes. The first from Jamaicans.com includes an assortment of veggies along with butter beans where this second recipe is accompanied by one man's tale on how he fell in love with the stew on chilly days in the Alps. Erik, who creates the recipe from memory, suggests having some Pilsner around to wash the oxtail stew down. The photo above comes from Jamaicans.com, but Erik's descriptions (without pictures) make me want to try his first. Check out the two options and tell us about your first encounter with oxtail stew. Was it in mama's kitchen or someplace like the Alps?

Yum.

Filed under: Arts and Culture, Learning, Food and Drink, North America, Jamaica, United States