'I want them to know their roots': A Queens mom on her oxtail recipe

With people gathering over food with family and friends to celebrate the holidays, we've asked some New Yorkers to share stories behind favorite recipes. Leslie Singleton is a resident of St. Albans, Queens. WNYC's Community Partnerships Desk talked with her as part of a collaboration with the Queens Memory Project.

The transcript of Leslie Singleton's story has been lightly edited for clarity.

My name is Leslie Singleton and I live in St. Albans, Queens. My family's favorite recipe is oxtail.

My grandmother is from Jamaica, so I have Jamaican roots. My mother and father were both born here. So, my recipe is not the traditional Jamaican recipe. I actually have friends I work with; they came from all different places in Caribbean. So, this is like a mixture. It has tomatoes and corn in it. My friend Sonia, she told me that part, because her children didn't eat vegetables. She said to get them to eat vegetables, she adds tomato and corn to it. 

So, I make this during Christmas, usually. And if I make it any other time, I tell the kids, you know, I'm cooking oxtail, then they'll come over. It's just a favorite. Everybody just loves oxtail. I don't know if it's because it's costly, so it's usually for special occasions. And when they know mommy's making it, I usually make a big part of it. And they'll come over, and we'll get together, they'll eat. My daughter lives in Harlem. So, she's like, 'okay, I wasn't planning to come.' I said, well, you don't have to come, but I'm letting you know, this is what I'm making. And so usually after a while, an Uber will pull up and she comes in and she eats, and they hang out a while. So, it's like a nice meal, it's hearty. I guess with all of us growing up, we like the food, but we really don't pay attention when our parents are making it. And we want to eat it, but we don't really want to do the work. So, I made a copy of this recipe so that they can do it. Because they'll come over to eat, they don't want to do the cooking. I'm like, well, why don't you? They're like, 'okay, it's all right.  I'll just sit here, you go ahead,' and they'll talk to me while I'm cooking, but they're not really doing any cooking.

I want them to know their roots and sometimes I'll put things like ackee and codfish, you know, things like that that you find in a Jamaican home because I don't want them to forget it altogether. So, they know that, you know, certain dishes are from their tradition.