Slow cooked beef cheeks
One day I was in a restaurant waiting for my meal when I heard one of the customers complaining about the wait. The waiter said, do you want it fast or do you want it good? Same principle applies for a good homemade meal. Sometimes you just have to take your time and the more time you take the better it is. Nothing illustrates the point better than this dish. Taking the time to make these looooong and sloooowwwww cooked beef cheeks results in a tender, juicy, melt-in-your-mouth flavoursome meal. The best relationships only get better with time and that has certainly been true of my love affair with this dish, and a serve of silky smooth mashed potatoes on the side only makes it more enjoyable. That little combo will win over even the most standoffish, harshest of critics (not mentioning any one by name, mother). This is a minimum-effort dish which has maximum impact…
Ingredients
· 1.5 kg beef cheeks
· 3 tbsp olive oil
· 1 onion diced
· 3 celery stalk, diced
· 3 carrots, diced
· 5 garlic cloves, crushed
· ½ bunch fresh thyme (1 bunch is 10g)
· 4 dried bay leaves
· 1 ½ cups beef stock
· 2 ½ cups red wine (full bodied eg. cabernet sauvignon or merlot)
· 1 teaspoon salt and pepper
Salt and pepper (extra) according to taste
Method.
This method is suitable for stovetop and oven
1. Cut off any large, fatty bits from beef cheeks. Pat dry then use 1 tsp salt and black pepper to season the beef all over.
2. Heat two tablespoons oil in a large heavy-based pot over high heat. Sear half the beef cheeks on each side until browned. Remove beef cheeks onto a plate, repeat with remaining cheeks.
3. Turn down the heat to medium- high and heat the remaining tablespoon of oil. Add garlic and onion. Sauté for three minutes until onion is translucent.
4. Add the celery and carrot, sauté for another three minutes.
5. Stir in wine and simmer wine for one minute.
6. Add remaining ingredients, return cheeks to the pot sprinkle salt and pepper according to taste, cover with lid.
6. Simmer on medium low for 4-6 hours until the cheeks are very tender and almost falling a part. (turn cheeks at least once during cooking).
Oven method
Pre heat the oven to 170C
Transfer ingredients from the pot to an oven proof dish, add beef cheeks cover with aluminum foil and cook for 4-6 hours or until the cheeks are very tender and almost falling apart. Turn cheeks at least once during cooking.
Once beef cheeks are ready, discard the thyme stems and bay leaves, serve with creamy mashed potato, which is what I do.
or you can go on to make gravy
Remove the beef cheeks from pot. Discard the thyme stems and bay leaves.
Using a handheld blender puree the braising liquid into a smooth Sauce - it will change from a dark brown to a lighter brown colour.
Bring the Sauce to simmer over medium heat and simmer until it turns a darker brown colour and reduces by roughly 1/4 to 1/3, to a gravy consistency - about 3 - 5 minutes. Remove from heat, return beef cheeks to the pot. Serve beef cheeks on creamy mashed potatoes drizzled with gravy.
33Jan Scherpenhuizen, Sara Bos and 31 others
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