Braised Beef Cheek in Pedro Ximenez on Cauliflower Puree

I heart beef, but seldom thought of making any dish with beef cheeks. The recipe of the slowly braised beef cheek that Trissa found in the Movida Rustica cookbook really got me thinking, “Hm…I should give it a go.” When I asked my daughter, “Do you want to try beef cheeks?” she instantly raised her eyebrows. “Beef cheeks? How to cook?” I know her very much. The two words “beef cheek” absolutely got her interest. With a bit concern, I didn’t promise her to make this dish because I was worrying that I couldn’t get all the ingredients, as I hadn’t seen any beef cheek here before. Well, I might haven’t noticed if there’s any.

To my surprise, I found three packets of beef cheek at Woolworths the following day. No need for second thought, I took two of them. I, myself, felt the end result was very satisfied. My daughter asked me to save a big portion for her next day’s lunch. The super tender, melt-in-mouth beef cheek on the creamy cauliflower puree was really a big hit in my family.

Movida’s Braised Beef Cheek in Pedro Ximenez on Cauliflower Puree

Recipe from Richard Cornish and Frank Camorra's Movida Rustica (via: Trissalicious)  (Printable recipe)

Ingredients:

• 1.5 kg beef cheeks
• 125 ml olive oil
• 3 carrots, roughly chopped
• 1 garlic bulb, halved
• 1 brown onion, sliced
• 500 ml Pedro Ximenez Sherry
• 500 ml red wine
• 3 bay leaves
• 3 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 head cauliflower, broken into florets
• 185 ml cream
• 40 grams butter

Method:

1. Trim the beef cheeks to neaten them up and remove any new sinew and silver skin. Season well.
2. Heat half the olive oil in a large heavy-based saucepan over high heat. Brown the beef cheeks for 2 minutes on each side, or until golden, then remove from the pan.
3. Add the remaining olive oil, then add the carrot, garlic, onion and saute over high heat for 12 to 15 minutes, or until well browned. Stir in the sherry, wine, bay leaves, thyme, sea salt and 500 ml water. Reduce the heat as low as possible, add the beef cheeks, then cover and cook for 3 to 4 hours, or until the cheeks are beginning to fall apart.
4. Meanwhile, put the cauliflower, cream and butter in a saucepan, season to taste with salt, then cover and cook over low heat for 35 minutes, or until very tender. Place the cauliflower mixture in a blender and process until smooth. Keep the puree warm.
5. The sauce from the beef cheeks should by now be reduced and glaze like. It if needs further reducing, remove the cheeks from the pan, cover with foil to keep them warm, and simmer the sauce over high heat until nicely reduced. Strain the sauce through a fine sieve and return to the pan; gently reheat the cheeks in the sauce if necessary.
6. Serve the cheeks and their sauce on warm plates with the cauliflower puree.