Monday 6 February 2012

Slow Cooked Ox Cheeks in Red Wine - recipe


I first tried ox-cheeks at a Heston Blumenthal restaurant.  To be precise, the Little Chef in Popham.  They were braised, sous-vide, in red-wine sauce, and were delicious.  Sous-vide cooking can give great results, but most of us can’t justify the space for a vacuum packing machine and a large waterbath.  Straightforward slow cooking is a very acceptable alternative in the average kitchen.  Having a gas hob and electric oven, I prefer to slow cook in the oven, as once it’s up to temperature, so long as you don’t keep opening the door, it doesn’t take a lot of energy to keep the oven hot.  If you have an actual slow cooker, all the better.  A great advantage of slow cooking is that it enables you to use very cheap cuts of meat.  Personally, I’m a big fan of cheap cuts.  They are generally full of flavor.  And cheap!  I source all my meat from an excellent butcher, and I’m happy to pay a lot more for very good meat and eat it less often.  Using a cheaper cut is a very good way of doing this.  The meat for this dish cost under a fiver and feeds four, very easily.  It’s cheap enough to do for a kitchen supper, but, luckily, fabulous and fashionable enough to cook for a dinner party.  You can buy a whole chicken for about the same amount, from a supermarket.  But don’t.

You will need to spend a little time cutting away any sinew in the meat, as this will not cook down no matter how long and slow you cook it – it will only get tougher.  Use a sharp knife without too much depth.  A filleting knife is ideal, but a slim chef’s knife will do just as well.  Allow the knife to find its way, and to slide along the grain of the sinew, taking care not to trim off too much of the meat as you go along.  Don’t expect to be brilliant at this first time, but you’ll get better – it’s not difficult, just fiddly, and there’s a bit of a knack to it.  It is worth the effort, though, so have a go.

You’ll notice that the vinegar used in this recipe is Chinese Black Rice Vinegar.  I am having a bit of a love affair with this at the moment.  It’s not terribly difficult to get hold of – a good supermarket will stock it, as, of course, will any Oriental supermarket.  If you can’t get hold of it, though, you can substitute balsamic vinegar and a splash of Worcestershire sauce.

750g ox cheeks
Olive oil
6 carrots
2 onions
A couple of leeks
A stick of celery
A sprig of rosemary, leaves removed and finely chopped
A bottle of red wine – a middle of the road Cotes du Rhone will do nicely
3 tablespoons of tomato puree
A good splash of Chinese black rice vinegar – about a couple of tablespoons
Salt & Pepper

Trim ox cheeks as above.  Cut into chunks larger than a mouthful – if you cut them too small, they will disintegrate in the cooking.

Heat the olive oil in a heavy pan and brown off the meat.

Remove the meat to whatever you intend to cook the dish in.  I use a deep covered stoneware baker, as I cook the dish in the oven.  A casserole will do, so long as you have a well-fitting lid for it.  Or place in your slow cooker.

Roughly chop veg.  I like to chop it into different sized chunks.  If cooking quickly, you need to ensure that your ingredients are cut to the same size so that they cook evenly, but with slow cooking it is great to add some variety of texture by varying the sizes.  Lightly sautee in the meaty olive oil, incorporating any sticky fond which has formed on the bottom of the pan.



Add the vegetable to the meat in the dish/pan/slow-cooker, along with the chopped rosemary leaves and pour over the bottle of wine. 

A quick note on cooking with wine – some chefs assert that you should cook with the wine which you intend to eat with the meal.  Well, I wouldn’t advise that.  I am very happy to drink a £30 bottle of Aloxe Corton, but I’m not tipping it in my dinner.  If it’s just a splash, fair enough, but in this case, don’t go crazy with the expensive wine.  Don’t cook with something you wouldn’t or couldn’t drink, but there really is no need to spend a fortune.

Add the tomato puree.  When your sauce is pretty much entirely red wine, you really must add tomato puree, as without it elements of the dish can take on an unattractive bluish tone.  Splash in the vinegar (or vinegar and Worcester sauce) and season with salt and pepper.

Place in a low oven (130c), over a VERY low heat, or in a slow cooker for seven or eight hours, checking the meat for tenderness a couple of times in the last couple of hours.

Serve with mash.  Niiiice!

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