Bone Sucking Delicious Jamaican OxTail Stew

I was GONNA stay home today, cause for the 2nd time, the A/C guys were gonna come fix the leak in the A/C. and for the 2nd time, that fell through.  So what a bitch, coming in to work for a few hours, (we have summer hours), and then going back home. I wasn't even going to go… But!!! Thank the food-gods that I did! Cause my awesome friend and coworker, Maria, left me a container of her home made jamaican oxtail stew on my desk.

Marvel at the glistening gelatinous supple meat.  If you're a fan of sucking meat off the bone (like I am, myself, thank you very much!), then you'll love oxtail!  Which I think is really just cow tail.

I've only had Oxtail soup, like the chinese kind, so this was a first for me!

Maria's end result was delicious!!!! I say was cause I ate it all up in 5 minutes. Its now just bones at my desk. 

Here's her recipe for Jamaican Oxtail Stew:

"Before preparing everything I washed the oxtail in lemon juice (you can do either lemon (bottled juice) or vinegar)

Everything was cut is small to medium pieces….

2 pounds of Oxtail 

6 cloves of garlic

2 large onions

1 red pepper

1 green pepper

1 spoon of pepper

1/2 spoon of salt

Soya (this is to make it dark, you do this but don't put too much salt)

1 scotch bennet pepper

1 sprig fresh thyme

Carrots

In order for it to be tender I cooked it for 5 hours. The first 1.5 hour I cooked it in a pressure pot with 2 cups of water the rest of 3.5 hours I put on a crock pot in threw it in the oven and added 3 cups of water)

I pretty much follow this recipe, but I didn't follow everything.

http://www.negril-tour-guide.com/jamaican-oxtail-recipe-stew-in-a-crockpot.html"

Wow! Fall off the bone deliciousness! 

Thank you so much Maria!!!! xxx

Rocket Pop!

Hi the 3 people who read my blog!!!!
OMG!

i am so sorry i have been totally MIA!
so as per my last post! i have recently moved and my days consisted of watching TV on the only available (and still only available) lounging furniture, my bed, until i passed out.

Also! 2 weeks ago, I went back to my hometown of Vancouver, so look out for updates for those!!!! (eventually...)

Anyway! this is short and sweet. but our work sent over an ice cream truck today! Free ice cream/slushies/popsicles for everyon!!!! I myself chose a rocket... not much to say but if i develop diabetes (as my dad predicts), you'll know why!!!

OK. Back to work! I promise to update ASAP!!!!

Jessica

Free Lunch! Courtesy of Whining.

MMMM.... so i have a girl at work from nicaragua, (where? nicaragua... i love making her say it) and she gets the most awesome lunches, cause they do all this great spanish stuff.  She told her mom about me, and her mom was like, ok i made all this stuff, why dont you bring a lunch to jessica to try. but she DIDNT! cause she was too lazy to pack it for me!!! and i grumble as i do, and remind her her lazy ass costed me a free awesome mom made lunch.  So today! i breeze into work and see a tupperware container of pasta on my desk.  You know what beats free food? GOOD home made free food.  

Me and her are apparently on a "diet" right now. haha. so nothing makes a good meal than a cheesy pasta dish. i'm getting to the health part, she used ground chicken, and 'shrooms, and spinach, garlic, onions, tomatos, with lots of mozzarella, and jalapeno oil.  I think that's what it was.  I cant remember! but it was deeeelicious! Thanks M! You're the best!!!!

Tah Deeg (Khorak Sara) @ Yonge and Finch, another Kebab on my kebab quest!

TAH Deeg

5525 Yonge St. South of Finch on Yonge

416-225-1688

416-562-0138

one of the flyers they have, not actual menu

So, i have only recently discovered the AWESOMENESS (and apparently healthiness), of kebabs!

The first stop i made was at Taftan Kebab and i was in love... i had it like 3 times in a week.  It was threatening thundershowers and i still flip flopped over...and it totally did thundershower...

I've been doing this Sheppard to Finch walk back on Yonge for awhile now, one weekend i was peering into the window and checking out the menu, and was like, ok, i'll come check out out some time, when the owner chased after us (ok walked briskly behind us to get something at the korean store next door) was like hey! dont you like ********* food? i cant remember what he said. And i was like, oh YESSS!!!! i'll come back! i promise! and i did.

here's the inside of it, its pretty small, its like a small persian grocery mart.

here's the chef griller grilling away, he took off his glasses for my shot. hehe.

The owner came over and was like, here's a free appy, on the house!  It's a yogurt with shallots he says. thick thick yogurt with salty bits, was interesting. gonna save this to sauce my meats!

He also gave me this Sumac powder, i'm not too familiar with it, he said to put it on the meat.  I looked it up, its a greek/middle eastern spice, used as a rub on meats, and has a sour lemon taste. oh! also its like bright red and really crunchy. i totally forgot to use it after taking this picture.

So here it is. I got the number 4. which... i forgot what it was, but consisted of barb beef, and koobideh, which is a ground beef kebab. there were also these yellow rice cakes, he said usually they make it with chicken but today, it was rice and egg and saffron.  Also! i finally found out what the butter was for.... you pour it on everything.  kind of an no brainer if i actually think about it.

At $11.99, this portion was smaller than the $12.99 at Taftan, where  you get a larger piece of meat.  But the koobideh was super moist and juicy and flavourful.  You also get a salad at Taftan which i missed, but instead you get these rice cakes here.  Ever since i got horrible service at Utopia Cafe last week (update soon!), i have been all about good service, like the exceptional service we got at Sassafraz in Yorkville this weekend.  The owner was SUPER NICE, super friendly, and really happy that i was trying his food out, brought me stuff to try. He was like, how did you find out about kebab!?!  Even the guy who was dining in earlier, him and the chef was like, how is your food? are you liking it? and he gave a thumbs up and they were like giddy schoolgirls.  It's stuff like that that's cool, when people are just happy to make food for people to enjoy. When we went to pay, the pop was gratis, a special he says.

The portions may be smaller. but the heart of a restaurant is the ppl behind it, and their hearts are huge!!! Such nice people. 

There he is! the owner standing behind the til! Go give him a visit! Tell him you found out about it on some girl's blog who came and took pictures.  maybe he'll give you a free pop! haha.

Skor covered cupcakes!!!!

We had a work lunch. and this lil fella was leftover cause i guess people thought he was rolled in poop or something. but GUESS WHAT SUCKAHS! he was rolled in SKOR BITS. it was the most delicious skor cupcake ever!!!! everything should be rolled in skor. 

buffalo chicken salad

I had a work trip to New Bedford, MA (hour out of Boston), a while ago, and got to order in lunch.. everyone else ordered hoogies or pohboys or whatever you wanna call dem subs, but i went another route, cause i was trying to be "smart" by ordering a "salad" and was eagerly saving myself for a large bostonion lobster feast that never happened, so the tastiest meal of my day was this... and it was DELICIOUS! I'd never even heard of a buffalo chicken salad, with blue cheese dressing, and a heaping ot cheese to top, it was delicious, the crisp letteuce and cucumbers really cut the spice, it was sooo good. plus the spice kicked me back awake during the presentation. double benefit for stomach and mind!