Beef Cheeks in Red Wine With Carrots in Star Anise

Beef cheeks, bone marrow on toast, white vegetable puree, red wine shallots, charred leeks, glazed carrots and beef jus

The inspiration for this dish came from lazy sundays around the fire. This dish is warm and comforting and packs in oodles of flavour. It takes a little while for the beef cheeks to cook down but believe me it is worth the wait. If you don't have a pressure cooker you can achieve the same results in an oven set at 150℃ (fan) , you will just need to increase the cooking time to 3.5 – 4 hours depending on the size of the cheeks.

Serves: 4

Difficulty: Medium/Hard

Time: 3.5 hours

Ingredients

For the beef cheeks:

• 2 large beef cheek oysters
• 2 tbsp grapeseed oil
• 500ml red wine
• 1 carrot, peeled and diced
• 1 celery stick, diced
• 1 brown onion, peeled and diced
• 0.5 litres of beef stock
• 0.5 litres of chicken stock
• 4 bay leaves
• 4 cloves
• 4 star anise
• 4 cloves garlic, smashed
• ½  tbsp black peppercorns
• 1 tbsp salt
• 6 sprigs of thyme

For the white vegetable puree:

• 2 parsnips, peeled and diced
• 1 celeriac, peeled and diced
• 8 radishes, peeled and halved
• 1 white onion, peeled and diced
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tbsp peppercorns
• 550ml of milk
• 500ml whipping cream
• 50g butter
• Salt and pepper

For the charred leeks:

• 4 leeks, washed
• 25g butter

For the beef jus:

• Reserved stock from the beef cheeks
• 20g butter

For the bone marrow toasts:

• 40g bone marrow
• 5g chopped parsley
• 10g shallot, finely diced
• 4 slices of white bread
• 1/4 clove garlic
• 5ml olive oil

For the glazed carrots:

• 8 carrots
• 250ml water
• 125g butter
• 75g caster sugar
• 2 star anise
• ½  tbsp salt

For the red wine shallots:

• 150ml red wine
• 1 sprig of thyme
• 6 juniper berries, crushed
• 8 shallots
• 6 peppercorns
• 25g dark brown sugar

Hints and Tips

Vac-Pac

You don't need to spend a lot of money on a fancy vac pac – I got mine from Andrew James for less than £40. They are useful for anything you want to poach in water and also for compressing flavours into your food. It alters the structure and texture.

Alternatively for this recipe you can wrap the leeks tightly in cling film before placing into the pan of boiling water.

Pressure cooker safety

Never ever under any circumstance open a pressure cooker while it's still hot. You are likely to explode the lid and cover yourself in extremely hot liquid. Each pressure cooker comes with safety instructions so please ensure you adhere to these.

Release that pressure. When the food is done cooking under pressure, use an appropriate pressure-release method, according to the recipe you're making. With the beef cheeks recipe I remove the cooker from the heat and leave to cool for 30 mins. If you are in a hurry you can always run the pressure cooker under a cold tap (obviously if you have an electric pressure cooker this method is not for you!).

Bone marrow

I tend to get my bone marrow from the local butchers who never seem to charge. However some of the larger supermarkets have now started to stock it. If you should purchase yours from the butcher however you will need to purge it of any impurities which you do by soaking in cold water for 2 hours before use – be sure to keep refreshing the water.

If you are not keen on the idea of bone marrow you can make the toasts in exactly the same way and simply omit this ingredient.

Beef cheeks, bone marrow on toast, white vegetable puree, red wine shallots, charred leeks, glazed carrots and beef jus

The inspiration for this dish came from lazy sundays around the fire. This dish is warm and comforting and packs in oodles of flavour. It takes a little while for the beef cheeks to cook down but believe me it is worth the wait. If you don't have a pressure cooker you can achieve the same results in an oven set at 150℃ (fan) , you will just need to increase the cooking time to 3.5 – 4 hours depending on the size of the cheeks.

Method

For the beef cheeks:

1. Cut the beef cheeks in half and trim off all fat and obvious sinew. Beef cheeks are naturally covered in an outer layer of fat but please don't be put off, this all gets removed before you cook it – take your time to cut away anything that isn't meat, as you want the cheek to literally fall apart when you touch it with a fork after it's cooked. Depending on the size of each cheek you may be able to get 3 portions out of it.
2. Once the beef cheeks are prepared you are ready to start cooking. Heat the oil in the pressure cooker over a medium/high heat. Add the cheeks and brown on all sides until caramelised. Remove from the pan and drain any excess fat.
3. Now add some more oil to the pressure cooker, reduce the temperature to low/medium and add the finely chopped carrot, celery, onion and crushed garlic bulbs. Cook down for 8 – 10 mins until the vegetables have softened and started to brown.
4. While the vegetables are cooking add the red wine to a separate pan and bring to the boil. Once the vegetables have browned, add the beef cheeks back into the pressure cooker and pour over the boiling red wine.
5. Stir in the stock, bay leaves, cloves, peppercorns, salt and thyme. Bring the liquid to a simmer and then reduce the heat to low/medium. Close the lid of the pressure cooker, and cook for 2 hours until the meat is very tender. Once ready, remove from the pressure cooker from the heat and leave the meat to cool in the cooking liquid. (See hints and tips)
6. Once the cheeks are cool, remove them and leave to one side. Pass the cooking liquid through a sieve and set aside for the jus and for reheating the meat.
7. When you are ready to plate up reheat the cheeks by adding to a pan with some of the reserved cooking liquid. Bring up to a simmer, cover the pan and let it bubble away gently for 5 mins.

For the white vegetable puree:

1. Add the milk, cream, bay leaves, peppercorns and diced vegetables to a pan and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat to low/medium and simmer until all the vegetables are soft (approx. 30 mins).
2. Strain the vegetables through a sieve (reserving a little of the cooking liquor) and blitz the vegetables in a blender and a little of the cooking liquid, adding more if required to form a smooth puree.
3. Next make a beurre noisette (burnt butter). Pop the butter in a small pan and bring to the boil, continue cooking until it starts to turn a nutty brown colour. Add this to the vegetable puree and blitz again until incorporated.
4. Depending on how powerful your blender is you may then want to push the puree through a sieve to remove any lumps.
5. Season to taste and keep warm until ready to serve.

For the glazed carrots:

1. Peel the carrots and chop in half. Place the water, butter, sugar, star anise and salt in a pan over a high heat and bring to the boil, stirring to melt the butter and dissolve the sugar.
2. Add the carrots, reduce the heat to a medium-low and leave  to simmer, uncovered, for 25-30 mins until they are tender and the liquid has reduced to half.

For the bone marrow toasts:

1. Purge the bone marrow by soaking in cold water for at least 2 hours before use. Keep refreshing the water.
2. I tend to put the bone marrow (diced), roughly chopped parsley, shallots, garlic and 2 of the slices of bread (crusts removed) in to a small hand held blender and mix until a fine crumb is formed. Alternatively you can chop all the ingredients finely by hand and mix together. Season.
3. Flatten the remaining 2 slices of bread with a rolling pin and cut out 4 small circles using a cookie cutter. Alternatively you can use the top of an egg cup as a stencil and cut around that. Butter lightly on one side.
4. Preheat oven to 170℃ (fan). On a large baking tray spread out the bone marrow crumb and lay out the discs of bread. Cook in the oven for approx. 10 mins until the bread is toasted and the crumb has started to brown very slightly in places. You don't want to over do the cooking as you still want to retain the green colour of the parsley.
5. When you are ready to serve pile the bone marrow crumb on top of each of the toasts and finish with a small sprig of parsley.

For the charred leeks:

1. Wash the leeks and trim away the green steam. Heat a griddle or frying pan until very hot and cook the leeks until dark and charred on the outside.
2. Place the leeks in a vacuum bag, seal and cook in a saucepan of water for 20 minutes (see hints and tips).
3. After cooking leave to cool and then remove from the bag. Peel off the outer layers of the leeks and reserve for the ash. The leek hearts can now be set aside until you are ready to plate up. Reheat just before serving in a pan with some butter and salt.
4. For the ash lay the reserved outer leaves on a baking tray and place in a preheated oven at 190℃ (fan). You will need to keep an eye on this but you want to burn the leaves to form an ash. This should take 15 mins. Once the leaves have blackened remove from the oven and cool. You can then crumble them up and pass through a fine sieve to achieve the ash. Trust me, it adds a beautiful flavour to the leeks when served together.

For the Jus:

1. Strain some of the reserved stock from the beef cheeks (approx. 600 ml) in to a pan over a high heat and reduce by two thirds. You want the sauce to thicken so it has a lovely pouring consistency. Whisk in the butter at the end to thicken the sauce further and achieve a lovely gloss.

For the red wine shallots:

1. Bring the red wine, thyme, juniper berries, peppercorns and sugar to the boil in a small pan.
2. Peel the shallots leaving the root still attached, add to the red wine and cover with a cartouche (a piece of baking parchment that sits snugly on top of the shallots and red wine).
3. Reduce the heat and cook until the shallots are tender and the wine slightly syrupy (approx. 30 mins).

To plate:

1. See photo below: I like to serve this up in a wide white bowl. First spoon in a generous helping of the vegetable puree. Next place a beef cheek on top followed by a bone marrow toast.
2. Place a leek next to the beef cheek in the bowl and carefully sprinkle some of the ash over the top of the leek.
3. The carrots, onions and jus I serve separately on the side for people to help themselves.

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Source: http://fosburyfoodie.co.uk/recipes/middle/beef-cheeks

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