Main · Autumn / Winter
Beef cheek braised in red wine with roasted garlic
Eight hours of braise, fifteen minutes of work. Meat that falls under a spoon.
Chef René, who ran the meat station at Bord'eau in my Amsterdam years, never rushed a braise. He used to stand by the oven with a stopwatch he didn't actually need and tell anyone who'd listen that the cooks who try to shave off an hour are the ones who can't taste the difference.
He was right. Beef cheek at 130 °C wants six to eight hours. At 160 °C it wants three. The lower one is the better one. The connective tissue has time to turn to silk, the wine has time to lose its alcoholic sharpness and become a sauce. There is no shortcut. Whoever tells you otherwise has never made it well.
Whole garlic bulb in the pan, cut-side up, is the trick I picked up from a stoof guy in Bruges. Twelve hours later you squeeze the cloves out onto the plate next to the meat and the kitchen has done all the work for you. This is the dish I make the day my best friend visits, because by the time he arrives it's been ready for six hours and the only thing left to do is drink.
- Total time
- 8 h 25 min
- Serves
- 2 people
- Difficulty
- 3 / 5
- Pair with
- Mencía from Bierzo, or a big Ribera del Duero.
Ingredients
- 500 gbeef cheek, cleaned, in 4 pieces
- 1 + 1 + 1onion + carrot + celery stalk, rough chopped
- 1 bulbgarlic, top sliced off
- 2 + 3bay leaves + thyme sprigs
- 1 tbspconcentrated tomato paste
- 500 mlrobust southern red wine
- 300 mlbeef stock
- to tasteolive oil, salt, black pepper
Method
- 1
Pat the cheeks dry, season hard with salt and pepper.
- 2
Heat olive oil in a cast-iron pan high. Sear the meat deep brown on every side. No hurry. Lift out.
- 3
Soften the mirepoix in the same pan, 8 minutes. Stir in the tomato paste, cook two more minutes until it colours.
- 4
Deglaze with the red wine. Scrape the bottom clean. Reduce 5 minutes.
- 5
Meat back in, stock, bay, thyme, whole garlic bulb cut-side up. Liquid just to the meat. Bring to a low boil, lid on, into the oven at 130 °C for 6-8 hours.
- 6
Lift the cheeks out, garlic alongside. Strain the braising liquid, defat it, reduce on the hob to a syrupy sauce. About a third.
- 7
Meat back in the sauce to warm and glaze. Garlic on the plate. Guests squeeze the cloves out themselves.
