With a careful selection of all the right seasoning and fruity flavours, this exquisite dish is always a favourite for the festive table. The secret to this tongue recipe is to cook the meat slowly and to make sure that the meat remains submerged in water so that it cooks through. It’s delicious with rice and can be served with a variety of hot or cold salads and vegetables. We created homemade pickles to serve alongside the tongue dish, but you can also buy ready-made ones from Shoprite. Serves: 8.

Tongue:

1. Chop onion, celery, carrots and dissolved chicken stock. Place in large pot on stovetop.
2. Place tongue on top of vegetables in the pot.
3. Cook slowly on low heat for 6 hours until soft.
4. Keep on adding water until cooked.
5. Remove from pot, allow to cool and remove skin from tongue.
6. Slice thinly.

Sauce:

1. Strain the stock that was used to cook the tongue.
2. Heat 3 cups of the strained tongue stock in a pot.
3. Add apricots, sultanas, brown sugar, vinegar, salt and pepper.
4. Mix Maizena and English mustard together in cold water.
5. Add to stovetop mixture.
6. Cook sauce for another 2-3 minutes until Maizena is cooked.

To serve:

1. Layer tongue on one half of a flat meat dish.
2. Place rocket leaves with olive oil, salt, pepper and two wheels of crumbed feta cheese on the other half of the dish.

Pickles:

1. Buy Robertson pickled mix and add grape, apple, brown or white wine vinegar according to recipe. Pour pickle mix into jars and add vegetables. Otherwise, simply buy ready-made pickles from Shoprite.