2 red onions
65g clarified butter
2 garlic cloves
6 beef cheeks
80g flour
750ml red wine
1 tbsp tomato paste
120g Quetschekraut or damson jam
400ml beef stock
2 cinnamon sticks
1 star anise
2 cloves
5 black peppercorns
1 ½ tbsp brown sugar
salt and pepper
To serve:
Pomegranate seeds
Crispy onions
For the purée:
1.2kg parsnips
3 Braeburn apples
75g butter
40ml milk
nutmeg
salt and pepper
Hands-on: 50mins – Oven: 4 ½ h – Serves 6
Preheat the oven to 140°C fan.
Peel and slice the red onions. Melt 20g butter in a large, heavy-bottomed saucepan and fry the onions with a pinch of salt for 4 minutes until soft. Peel and crush the garlic and fry with the onions for another minute. Remove from the saucepan and set aside.
Put the flour onto a plate and season with salt and pepper. Toss each beef cheek in the seasoned flour. Melt 15g butter in the same saucepan used for the onions and brown two beef cheeks on each side. Place onto a plate and repeat with the remaining beef cheeks.
Once all the beef cheeks are browned and out of the saucepan, deglaze the saucepan by adding 250ml of red wine and scraping the bottom, so that some of the browned residue from frying the meat comes lose (this is where all the flavour lies).
Add the tomato paste and the damson jam and stir so that the tomato paste gets diluted. Add the remaining wine, beef stock, onions, mulled wine spices, brown sugar and beef cheeks. Cover and bring to the boil.
Once the sauce is boiling, put in the preheated oven and cook for 4 ½ hours until the beef cheeks are really tender. Adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper.
For the purée:
While the beef cheeks are in the oven, prepare the purée. Peel the parsnips and cut into approximately 3cm cubes. Peel and core the apples and cut into 3cm cubes.
Cook in a saucepan with salted boiling water for about 10 minutes until the parsnips are soft. Drain and put the parsnips and apples into a food processor with the butter, milk, nutmeg and salt and pepper. Whizz until you have a smooth purée. Set the purée aside and reheat when ready to serve.
When ready to serve, put a generous portion of purée onto each plate, top with a beef cheek and sauce and sprinkle with pomegranate seeds and crispy onions.
TIP:
• You need to pre-order beef cheeks at your butcher’s. Ask them to clean them so that they’re ready to use.
• This dish works well with a side of Brussels sprouts
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