Christmas dessert

Chocolate panna cotta with verjuice-poached prunes

15 minutes

Trifle recipes

Sticky date and mixed-berry muffins

35 minutes

Guinea fowl and Parma ham roulade with potato pudding

90 minutes

Cooking with

Pumpkin cake with prunes in dessert wine syrup and candied pumpkin

1 hour

Prune-and-gorgonzola tart with crushed coriander

10 - 15 minutes

Christmas recipes

Latin American Christmas turkey

2 hour

Pizza recipes

Fig and prune pizza with caper berries

15 minutes

Hot roasted beetroot and red onion soup with dumplings

2½ hours

Beef recipes

Pot-roasted sticky oxtail with port and dried fruits

1½ hours

Pot-roasted sticky oxtail with port and dried fruits

By Abigail Donnelly

Serves 4

Difficulty Easy

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cooking Time 1½ hours

Ingredients

2 T olive oil
500 g oxtail pieces
70 g cake flour
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 onion, roughly chopped
3 cloves garlic
1 x 100 g packet mixed dried fruit
10 prunes
3 sticks cinnamon
500 ml port
500 ml beef stock

Method

In a large, heavy-based saucepan, heat the olive oil until very hot. Toss the oxtail pieces in the cake flour, then season to taste and brown off in the hot saucepan.

Remove from the saucepan and add the onion and garlic. Sauté for 5 minutes, then return the browned oxtail to the saucepan.

Add the dried fruit, prunes and cinnamon together with the port and stock. Reduce the heat and simmer gently for 1½ hours, or until the meat is very tender and the juices turn sticky. Season to taste and serve warm.

Cook’s note: It may be necessary to add more liquid during cooking depending on how long it takes for the oxtail to soften. You can also cook the oxtail for half the time with the saucepan’s lid on, removing it later to reduce the liquid.

TASTE’s take:

No longer frowned upon as an inferior meal option, affordable cuts of meat – from liver and kidneys to silverside and oxtail – are back on the menu and ready to reign supreme.

Easy, butter-roasted tomato-and-sausage spaghetti

Sweetcorn tamarind soup

Pork cacciatore

Macadamia prune tart

Christmas mince pie

Chocolate panna cotta with verjuice-poached prunes

Muscadel trifle

Sticky date and mixed-berry muffins

Guinea fowl and Parma ham roulade with potato pudding

Pumpkin cake with prunes in dessert wine syrup and candied pumpkin

Prune-and-gorgonzola tart with crushed coriander

Latin American Christmas turkey

Fig and prune pizza with caper berries

Hot roasted beetroot and red onion soup with dumplings

Pot-roasted sticky oxtail with port and dried fruits

Pot-roasted sticky oxtail with port and dried fruits

Ingredients

Method