Jamaican Meat Recipes

Jamaican Beef Patties

Jamaican Beef patties (also known as spicy Jamaican beef patties) are pastries, traditilionally filled with seasoned beef, but can also be filled with: chicken, pork, lamb, vegetables, fish, ackee or cheese. In Jamaica, the patties are often eaten as a full meal (either breakfast, lunch or dinner), but they can also be made as bite-size portions. The Jamaican patty has a flaky shell, which is often tinted golden yellow with an egg ylk mixture.

When I was in Jamaica I had two Patties, one with beef only and the other one with beef and cheese. My friend Robyn did not really like the patties as they were to spicy for her, but I loved them. So if you decide to make this dish, make sure you adjust it to your own spicyness preference.

To make it easier for you to prepare this dish, I devided the recipe into three parts; the beef filling, the patty pastry dough, and the assembly. Hope you enjoy!

Beef Filling

Ingredients:

1½ lbs Ground Beef
1 medium Onion, chopped
2 tsp dried Thyme
1 tsp Black Pepper
1 tsp Garlic Powder
1 tsp Onion Powder
2 tsp Allspice
2 Beef Bullion
2 cups Boiling Water
2 Tbsp Browning (optional)
2 to 4 tsp Hot Pepper Sauce, or as spicy as you want it
1 cup Bread Crumbs
Salt, to taste

Method:

Heat large skillet on medium heat.
Add onions and sauté until translucent, about 2 minutes.
Add ground beef to skillet; stir in thyme, black pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, and allspice
Cook on medium-high until meat is browned and water absorbed; drain excess oil
Add beef bullion to 2 cups of boiling water then stir into beef
Bring the mixture to a boil then reduce heat and let simmer for 5 minutes.
Add browning and hot pepper sauce
Stir bread crumbs into beef until smooth; add salt to taste.
Remove from heat and let cool completely.

Patty Pastry dough

Ingredients:

4 cups Flour
2 tsp Tumeric powder
1 tsp Curry Powder
1 tsp Salt
½ lb (2 sticks) cold Unsalted Butter
1 cup Ice Cold Water
For Assembly:
¼ cup Water

Method:

Put flour, tumeric powder, curry powder and salt in a large bowl and mix thoroughly.
Rub butter into flour until crumbly
Add 1 cup ice cold water 2 – 3 tablespoons at a time into the flour mixture and mix with your hands to bring the dough together to form a ball.
Knead the dough on a floured surface until smooth. Cut the dough into 20 – 24 equal pieces, place on a platter or baking sheet, cover securely with plastic wrap and let chill for half an hour before using.

Assembly

Method:

Working with one piece of dough at a time, knead again until smooth (add water if needed). Using a floured rolling pin, roll out dough on a floured surface until thin. Roll dough into a 5-inch oblong circle or it little larger. Don’t worry if the edges are not even
Place 3 heaped tablespoons of the filling on one side of the circle. Make sure the filling is completely cold before assembling with the dough
Dip a finger into the water and liberally moisten the edges of the pastry, fold over the other half and press firmly to seal. Use a knife to trim the edge (I place a pot lid like a cookie cutter to trim the edge.) Take a fork and press firmly to crimp edges.
Place patty on a greased baking sheet and continue until you have rolled all the dough and filled all the patties.
Use a fork to prick the tops of the patties to make air holes. Place patties in a preheated 350 degrees F oven and bake patties for 30 — 35 minutes or until golden brown

Makes about 6 servings

Jamaican Curried Goat

In comparison to Curry Chicken, Curry Goat is a little more special and often only perpared on special occasions such as parties or celebrations. It is said that Jamacica's curries are the remnants of the Indian population who came to the island after the time of the slavery to work on the plantations. Nowadays, the Indian community is way smaller than it was during the time of the slavery, but their influence in Jamaican cuisine can still be found in dishes such as the curry goat.

For those who have never tried it before, this is one of those must-have Jamaican recipes. When prepared right, the meat will be more tender and flavourful than any beef curry you have ever had.

Ingredients:

3 lbs Goat meat, chopped in cubes
2 tsp Salt
1 tsp Black pepper
5-6 Tbsp Curry powder
1 large Onion, sliced
4-6 cloves Garlic, minced
1 Scotch bonnet pepper, slice and discard seeds (handle with care)
4 Tbsp Cooking oil
4 cups boiling Water
1 large spring Thyme
1 medium Onion, chopped
3 medium Potatoes, each cut in 3 pieces
1 Tbsp Tomato ketchup

Method:

Mix together goat meat, salt, black pepper, 4 Tbsp curry powder, 1 large onion sliced, garlic, Scotch bonnet pepper. Please in the fridge overnight (or at least 5 hours) to marinate.
Remove the sliced onions and scotch bonnet pepper from the bowl of marinated goat meat and set aside.
Heat cooking oil in large saucepan on High. Place goat meat in pan and brown to seal in juices.
Once the meat is browned add thyme and 2 cups of boiling water; cover, lower heat to Medium-Low and simmer for about 1 hour
Chop 1 medium onion and add to pot along with the sliced onion and Scotch bonnet pepper that was set aside earlier
Add 2 cups of boiling water and bring to a boil
Taste and remove Scotch bonnet pepper based on your taste; add more curry powder to taste
Add potatoes and tomato ketchup; simmer on low heat for 1/2 hour, or until the meat is falling off the bone

Makes 4 to 6 servings

Jamaican Oxtail Stew

Jamaican Oxtail Stew is a Jamaican classic! Oxtail cuts have been historically very cheap which made this a perfect dish for the poor. Eventually, the wealthier food lovers discovered these delicious meat bits. They would no longer turn their noses up at these "inferior" bits of meat, but discovered the rich flavors of the oxtail bits. This dish is a slow simmering dish which will allow you to add lots of love and care to it making it worth the wait.

This dish takes such a long time to prepare since oxtail is very tough and contains lots of cartilage. It therefore requires a long, slow simmer to break it down into soft, flavoury bits of meat.

Ingredients:

3lbs of oxtail
1 1/2 tsp Salt
1 tsp Black Pepper
2 cloves Garlic, minced
1 small onion, sliced
1 Tbsp Cooking oil
3 to 5 cups Boiling Water
1 each red and green Bell Pepper, chopped
1 Medium-large Onion, chopped
1 sprig of Thyme
½ tsp Hot pepper sauce, or to taste
1 Tbsp Steak Sauce
1 Tbsp Tomato Ketchup
1 tsp browning

Method:

1. Season oxtail the night before with salt, black pepper and garlic

2. Place sliced onions on top, cover and place in refrigerator overnight or for at least for 2 hours before cooking

3. While heating oil in heavy saucepan on Medium-High remove onions from top of meat and discard

4. Add oxtail to the sauce pan and sear to seal in juice; continue to brown the meat until the bottom of the pot is brown with renderings

5. Add 1 cup of boiling water and stir; turn heat down to Low and cover and simmer until tender

6. As the water reduces add more boiling water 1 cup at a time and continue to simmer until the meat “falling off the bone”; in total it will take about 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 hours

7. Pour some of the juices from pot into a frying pan and sautee the onion and bell peppers until onion is transparent, about 1 minute

8. Bring the meat to a boil and stir in thyme and onion and bell pepper mixture.

9. Add hot pepper sauce, steak sauce and tomato ketchup and worcestershire sauce; cook for 5 minutes.

10. Stir in another 1/2 cup of boiling water cover and add browning to darken the gravy.

7. Raise heat and bring to a rapid boil until gravy thickens, stirring at intervals so that no sticking or burning occurs. Remove from heat.

Makes 4 to 6 servings