November offers a lot to look forward to; rich warming stews, thick soups and hot spongy puddings are high on our list of meals as the colder weather gets under way. Evelyn Curtis shares a few of her favourite seasonal recipes.

November offers a lot to look forward to; rich warming stews, thick soups and hot spongy puddings are high on our list of meals as the colder weather gets under way. Somehow, chocolate is especially satisfying during the long, dark winter months ahead, so this month we have two delicious mouth watering chocolate recipes for you to indulge in - an inexpensive oxtail casserole and, for a teatime treat, hot buttered Welsh cakes.

Also, November is the month when we should traditionally be making our Christmas puddings, so I’ve included one with chocolate in it, which will make a subtle difference to the flavour of your Christmas pudding.

Braised oxtail recipe

Oxtail is inclined to be a fatty meat, but if cooked one or two days before it is going to be eaten, so that the fat can settle and be lifted, it’s one of the most nourishing and inexpensive winter meals to ward off the cold east winds that whip through the Norfolk village I live in. Serves 6.

Ingredients:

2 oxtails 35g (1½ ozs) beef dripping

1 large onion 2 small turnips

350g (12ozs) carrots Bouquet garni

2 Bay leaves Salt and pepper

1 tablespoon lemon juice l pint red wine or beef

4 peeled tomatoes (optional) stock cube made up to

600ml (1 pint)

Method:

1 Cut up oxtail and coat in seasoned flour.

Melt good beef dripping in a large pan and fry oxtails for about 5 minutes, then set aside in a large fireproof casserole. Fry onions in dripping left in pan and then add to oxtails.

Pour wine or beef stock over oxtails and bring to the boil.

Add salt, pepper, Bay leaves and bouquet garni for 1½ - 2 hours.

Then strain off the liquid into a large bowl and leave to cool, lift off as much fat as you can, and pour remaining liquid over oxtail.

Add peeled and sliced carrots and turnips to oxtail, also add lemon juice, bring to the boil, then cover and simmer in preheated oven 140C, 275F, Gas Mark 1 for 2 hours

2 Then add peeled tomatoes and simmer for a further 25 minutes.

Serve in the casserole in which the oxtail was cooked, no further vegetables are needed, as you can mop up juices with chunks of crusty bread, or make some dumplings and add to the casserole during the last 25 minutes of cooking.

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This recipe was taken from my cookbook ‘Step Into My Kitchen Through The Year’.

Spicy chocolate dessert recipe

A light, hot and fluffy dessert, which needs to be served immediately. Serves 4.

Ingredients:

4 eggs

75g butter

50g plain flour

Pinch of mixed spice

300ml milk

110g plain dark chocolate

50g caster sugar

Method:

Grease a l½ litre soufflé dish with butter.

Separate eggs.

Melt the butter in a saucepan and stir in flour and spice, cook for 1 minute.

Add the milk slowly, stirring until mixture thickens.

Beat in chocolate and sugar and cook for a further 2 minutes. Remove from the heat, beat in egg yolks and add to chocolate mixture.

Whisk the egg whites until stiff and fold into the mixture.

Pour into prepared soufflé dish and bake in preheated oven 200C, 400F, Gas Mark 6 for 30-35 minutes.

Chocolate plum pudding recipe

Adding chocolate to your Christmas pudding really does make a subtle difference and enhances its flavour; I am asked for this recipe time and time again as Christmas approaches. Serves 6.

Ingredients:

175g plain flour.

1 tsp mixed spice.

½ tsp grated nutmeg.

75g fresh brown breadcrumbs.

110g shredded suet. 110g raisins.

110g currants. 110g chopped stoned dates.

225g sultanas.

1 large apple, grated.

Grated zest of 1 lemon.

75g dark brown sugar.

75g plain chocolate, chopped.

2 eggs, beaten.

300ml stout.

Method:

Sift flour and spices into a bowl.

Add breadcrumbs, suet, dried fruits, apple, sugar, peel and chocolate.

Mix together and gradually stir in eggs and stout.

Leave mixture covered overnight.

Turn into a greased 1½ litre pudding basin and cover with greased paper and a pudding cloth.

Steam for 6 hours.

Re-steam for 2 hours before serving with hot rum sauce.

Welsh cakes recipe

These cakes are delicious to eat straight from a hot griddle, sprinkled with caster sugar or spread with butter. I try to make enough to freeze, but they nearly always disappear as soon as they are cooked. Makes about 16 cakes.

Ingredients:

225g (8 ozs) self-raising flour

75g (3 ozs) currants

½ teaspoon baking powder

1 large eggs and a little milk

110g (4 ozs) butter

Pinch of mixed spice or nutmeg

75g (3 ozs) caster sugar

Method:

Add spice to flour and rub butter into spiced flour, then add sugar, currants and bind with beaten egg and a little milk if needed to make a stiffish dough.

Roll out onto a floured surface, about ¼ inches thick, and cut into 2 ½ inch circles with pastry cutter.

Bake on a griddle or in a heavy based frying-pan for approximately 3 to 5 minutes on each side.

Pile onto a warm plate, sprinkle with castor sugar and serve.

These will keep for 1-2 days in an airtight tin and warmed up again in your oven for a few minutes.

Shopping for fruit and veg:

Beetroot, purple sprouting broccoli, red cabbage, celeriac, celery, pumpkin, salisfy and Swedes. At their peak: turnip, carrots, white cabbage, Brussels sprouts, chicory, leeks, garlic and parsnips.

At the beginning of November all flat fish are very good – Dover and lemon sole and plaice, but prices will begin to rise as the month goes on. Still the peak time for game, including pheasant, partridge and wild duck. Grouse will be nearing the end of its season on December 10 and is better stewed than roasted just now.

So, plenty to choose from as the winter months approach.