Hi Janis, oxtail seasoning is a mixture that is typically made up of allspice, paprika, salt, pepper, thyme, garlic powder, etc. It’s a seasoning mixture that you use in place of adding spices individually (like I’ve done in my recipe for oxtails; click here for my oxtail recipe). It basically gives you a short cut to add flavour to the oxtails without having to add the spices one at a time. I prefer to add the spices individually, so I don’t use oxtail seasoning; this is just a personal preference. You can give oxtail seasoning a try (Cool Runnings makes one that a lot of grocery stores carry) and decide if you prefer to use it or add the spices individually.

Hi Linda,

Sorry, I forgot that I’d mentioned in this post that I’d post my recipe for rice and peas with canned beans at some point. That was close to 3 years ago. So, clearly that recipe is overdue. I’ll post it next month as I’m a little busy right now. To answer your question, you want all the liquids (i.e., the water, juice from the canned beans, coconut milk, and broth, if you’re using) in the recipe to add up to a total of about 3½ cups (742 ml). I break this down to 2 cups of water, ½ cup of coconut milk (I like to add an extra 2 tbsp of coconut milk for more flavour; doing this doesn’t throw off the liquid amount too much), ¾ cup of juice from the canned beans (if you get less than this from the canned beans, use water to top it up to this volume), and ¼ cup of broth (you can use water instead if you want to be more traditional).

There are also slight changes to the directions. You’re not going to start by cooking the beans like in this recipe, as the beans are already cooked. So, start by sauteing the onions and garlic in about 1 tbsp of oil. Then add all the liquids (except for the coconut milk) and all the other ingredients, minus the rice and canned beans. Once that’s done, cover the pot and bring the liquid to a boil. Once the liquid starts to boil, remove the scotch bonnet pepper from the pot, then add the rice (make sure to rinse it in a strainer under running water), beans (I usually use the 540 ml can of dark red kidney beans), and coconut milk to the pot. Use a wooden spoon to stir everything together, then cover the pot (you can cover it with aluminum foil first, but it’s not necessary, I just think the rice turns out the best when I do this). Let the liquid come to a boil, then turn the heat to low and cook the rice and peas for 35-40 minutes. If you use the aluminum foil, remember to remove it just before the rice is done and let the rice finish cooking with only the lid covering the pot.

I hope this helps. I’ll post the more detailed recipe next month.

Update: I’ve now posted the recipe for Jamaican rice and peas with canned beans. For anyone who’s interested, click on the link here.

I’m glad you’re enjoying the recipes, Yolanda. Thanks for letting me know.

Hi Linda. Scotch bonnet is a really hot pepper (typically hotter than a jalapeno). However, in this recipe, the scotch bonnet is used without opening it and exposing the seeds and membrane (where most of the spiciness comes from) of the pepper. So, the dish isn’t actually spicy. It’s on the mild/medium level of spiciness. However, if you are very sensitive to pepper and are still concerned, you can leave out the pepper. It has such a low profile in the dish that leaving it out doesn’t really change the overall flavour of the dish. I hope this helps.

I’m glad that you like how I’ve written the recipe, Amanda. I always try to make things readable for people. Let me know how the recipe turns out for you and your father. I’m happy to hear that you’ll be checking out the other recipes on the blog.