This recipe has been adapted from a Delia recipe and is a really great winter warmer!

Ingredients:

1.35-1.6 kg Trenchmore Ox tail

350 gm large open mushrooms

550 ml beef stock

350 gm chestnut mushrooms

salt and black pepper

1 x 440 ml stout

I can cannelloni beans

4 tablespoons olive oil

1 rounded tablespoon plain flour, seasoned

2 large onions, halved and thickly sliced

4 whole garlic cloves, peeled

2 good sprigs thyme

To make the casserole, heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a large frying pan, then wipe the pieces of oxtail with kitchen paper and coat them lightly in seasoned flour and fry in hot fat on all sides until they are well browned colour.

Then, using a slotted spoon, transfer the pieces of oxtail to a casserole. Now add the rest of the oil and, as soon as that's hot, add the onions and fry these for about 5 minutes until brown at the edges, transfer them to the casserole. Remove the pan from the heat, then drain the beans and add them to the casserole along with the garlic cloves, sprigs of thyme and bay leaves and add a good seasoning of black pepper.

Next wipe the open cap mushrooms with some damp kitchen paper, halve them (or quarter them if they are very large), then add these to the casserole as well, tucking them in among the beans and oxtail. Now return the pan to the heat, add any remaining seasoned flour, stir it in to soak up the juices and gradually add the stock and the Guinness, whisking all the time until it reaches simmering point.

Pour it over the oxtail and the rest of the ingredients, cover with a tight-fitting lid and place in the pre-heated oven for 21⁄2 hours. Then add the chestnut mushrooms halved and wiped as above, put the lid back on and give the casserole a further hour in the oven. When you next remove it, you will see that some of the fat from the oxtail has bubbled up to the top – spoon this off by skimming a tablespoon across the surface - great for roasting potatoes!. Then season with salt before serving with a lightly cooked green vegetable.