The National Caribbean Heritage Museum has teamed up with SousChef to create a collection of recipes to mark Windrush 75 (observed on June 22nd 2023).
You can find a conversation in the kitchen with with Lynda-Louise Burrell of the Museum about British food in 1957, when museum founder Catherine Ross arrived as a young girl from St Kitts in Nottingham.
A traditional Caribbean Sunday lunch is particularly special as traditionally, guests are invited to join the family. The tradition is still going in Caribbean families today, especially those who go to church. Families, friends and guests sit down together and enjoy delicious, home-cooked Caribbean food, with dishes usually made by the host, or sometimes brought along by others at the table.
Lynda-Louise Burrell, Creative Director of The National Caribbean Heritage Museum, shares her traditional recipe for a classic Caribbean oxtail stew.
“My favourite Caribbean dish of all time is oxtail stew. It’s often associated with special occasions because it’s a bit more expensive to make, but if you can, it’s worth finding an excuse to make it more often and enjoy the tender, flavourful goodness of this cultural comfort good. Oxtail usually takes hours to cook. It must be cooked slowly, but the stew is well worth the wait. It’s quicker and easier to cook the oxtail if all the pieces are a similar size, but don’t worry, it’s not essential. Just one other thing, if the oxtail is fatty, remove some of the fat using a paring knife, to avoid ending up with fatty gravy.”
This oxtail stew will go well with Lynda’s recipe for rice and peas. You can stock up on Caribbean Food & Ingredients here.
You can also hear from Lynda’s mother Catherine about celebrating the 75th Anniversary of Windrush and her Caribbean food memories. As well as read Lynda’s recipes for a traditional Jamaican Celebration lunch.
Ingredients for Jamaican Oxtail Stew
- 1 kg oxtail, cut into medium chunks
- 1 400 oz can of butter beans (rinsed and drained)
- 2 medium carrots sliced, diagonally
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
- 5 pimento berries (or allspice)
- 4 garlic cloves grated or minced to a paste
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 medium brown onion, diced
- 4 spring onions finely sliced, diagonally
- 1 scotch bonnet pepper, cut in half removing the seeds and membrane or 1-2 tsp of this scotch bonnet pepper sauce or powder
- 1 tablespoon of fresh thyme or 3 tbsp dried thyme
- 1 beef stock cube (dissolved in water as directed) or beef broth
- 2 tbsp of gravy browning, Maggis liquid seasoning or dark soy sauce
- 2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 2 tsp brown sugar
- 2 tbsp cornflour
Method
- Put the oxtails into a large bowl.
- Sprinkle over the oxtails, the salt, black pepper, dried thyme, allspice, 2 of the 4 cloves of garlic, the all-purpose seasoning, graving browning, Maggis liquid seasoning or dark soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce and brown sugar.
- Mix the contents of the bowl with your hands so each oxtail piece is fully covered with the seasonings.
- Leave the oxtail to marinate in the fridge for 8 hours or overnight.
- Add the seasoned oxtail pieces to a Dutch pot or large saucepan with 1tbsp of the vegetable oil on medium-high heat, flat side down about ¼ inch apart, and brown on each side for about 2 minutes making sure they don’t burn.
- Remove the oxtail pieces when they are brown and put them into a bowl.
- Deglaze the pan by adding about 2 tbsp of beef stock cube (dissolved in water as directed) or beef broth, so you don’t lose any of the tasty goodness from the frying process. Keep the rest of the stock cube, or beef broth to one side, you will use it later.
- Add the remaining oil, the spring onions, carrots, and scotch bonnet pepper. Stir and sauté for about 5 minutes or until the onions have softened.
- Add the browned oxtails back to the pot with the remaining stock or beef broth and gently stir the contents.
- Cover the Dutch pot with the lid and bring the contents to the boil.
- Put the cornflour into a small bowl, add some of the liquid from the Dutch pot, a small amount at a time, and whisk to create a paste.
- Add this paste slowly to the contents of the Dutch pot while stirring in so that the liquid in it thickens.
- Add the drained butterbeans to the Dutch pot and cook for about 5 minutes until the sauce has thickened a little and the butterbeans are warmed.
- Serve and enjoy.
Recipe for rice and peas
Cook’s note
Before we get started with the cooking, if you want to be adventurous and add scotch pepper to the cooking of the rice and peas, it’s important to remember to use the pepper whole, and remove it after the rice is cooked. A taste warning – do not pop the pepper. Use it whole, and remove it whole, to avoid a very hot taste that will burn your mouth!
Serves 4 Caribbean-style portions i.e. large, or 6 usual servings!
Ingredients
- 500g basmati or long grain rice
- 200g dried red kidney or gungo peas (or, 400g can of gungo or red kidney peas, including the liquid, (if using canned peas add ½ tsp browning, Maggis liquid seasoning or dark soy sauce)
- 100g creamed coconut pieces (follow preparation instructions on package) or, 400ml can coconut milk
- 1 small brown onion, finely chopped
- 2 spring onions
- 4 garlic cloves, grated or minced to a paste
- 4 springs fresh thyme, or 1 tsp dried thyme
- 1 tsp pimento berries (allspice)
- 2 tbsp all-purpose seasoning
- 1 to 2 tsp salt, to taste (adjust to taste if you are added salt pork)
- 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
- 1 scotch bonnet pepper
- ½ cup water (can add up to a further 140ml if needed)
Method
- Rinse the rice in cold water. Do this about 2-3 times before cooking it.
- Empty canned peas and liquid into a Dutch pot or large saucepan.
- Fill empty can with water and pour in saucepan. (Optional, add ½ tsp gravy browning, Maggis liquid seasoning or dark soy sauce to give the rice a darker colour and an enhanced taste).
- Add chopped onion, spring onion, garlic, thyme, pimento berries also known as allspice, all-purpose seasoning, salt and black pepper, and a whole scotch bonnet pepper.
- Add a piece of a block of creamed coconut (prepared as the package directs) or coconut milk and simmer for 5- 10 minutes.
- Add rice, stir, and boil on a high heat for 2 minutes.
- Turn heat to low and cook covered until all water is absorbed (approx. 20 min).
- Check that the rice does not stick to the bottom of the pot.
- Add more water if rice is sticking or needed.
- Remove the scotch bonnet pepper whole, the sprig of thyme, and a whole spring onion.
- Mix the rice from the bottom then, let it rest for 5 minutes before fluffing with fork before serving.
Penny Bread recipe
Cook’s note: Can be eaten alone, with butter, dipped into hot chocolate, Caribbean-style or with cold meats and cheese.
Serves 4, 2 portions per person
Ingredients for Penny bread
- 2 cups of plain flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 tablespoons sugar
- 1/2 tablespoons lard/shortening
- 2 tablespoons butter
- if you do not want to use lard go right ahead and use 2 1/12 tablespoons of butter.
- Lukewarm water (enough to bring the mixture together to form a soft dough)
Method
- Preheat the oven at 350 or 325 degrees
- Combine all of the ingredients together holding back the water.
- Mix with your hands and slowly pour in the water a drop at a time while kneading the mixture into a soft dough.
- Clean the bowl as you go so none of the mixture is left behind. Do this by using the dough mixture. This will take approximately 3 minutes.
- Sprinkle flour on a chopping board or clean surface and continue to knead the dough so it is smooth and soft using the heel of your hand adding more flour if needed.
- Shape the dough into a round ball
- Sprinkle flour in the bowl and place the dough onto it
- Cover the bowl with a tea-towel and let the dough rest for 40 minutes in a warm place
- Take off the tea-towel from the bowl and use your knuckles to push down to take out the air and re-kneed again rolling the dough into a sausage shape.
- Cut the dough into 8 equal pieces and shape (pushing inward with your fingers) into round shapes.
- Roll each piece out in your hand and shape into small baguette shapes folding them into themselves. Roll them out and pinch each end using your thumb and forefinger approx. 4 – 6 inches per roll. At the final point of rolling out the baguette, shape it in traditional style by making sure the ends are pinched and pointed and the middle part of the baguette a bit higher.
- Cover the penny bread again with a clean cloth and rest for 30 minutes in a warm area
- Bake for 20 – 25 minutes or until golden brown.
- Let the penny bread rest for 30 minutes. The perfect penny bread will be crisp on the outside and light and fluffy on the inside
See also: Fresh and Fragrant Elderflower Cordial
