One of my favourite weekend pastime is wandering around in markets discovering weird and wonderful new ingredients for my next kitchen adventure. My loot this time was this beautiful bright orange cauliflower and beef cheeks at a local butcher. The beef cheeks were slow cooked with marsala and red wine for 3 hours until it turned into this gelatinous piece of goodness that just falls apart under the lightest pressure of your fork. The cauliflower was cooked two ways, roasted and as a creamy puree to experiment and play with the different textures and flavours. This was the perfect plate of comfort food for me on a cold winter night.
Difficulty: Medium
Time: 30 min prep, 3.5hrs cooking
Serves: 4
Ingredients
Beef Cheeks
- 1 kg beef cheeks
- 2 carrots finely diced
- 1 onion sliced
- 4 cloves of garlic
- 3 thyme sprigs
- 3 bay leaves
- 1.5 cups of masala wine
- 0.5 cup chicken stock
- 1 cup red wine
- salt
- pepper
- oil
Cauliflower Puree
- 1/2 orange cauliflower cut into smaller pieces
- 180ml cream
- 1/4 cup chicken stock
- 4 tbsp butter
- salt
- pepper
Roasted Cauliflower
- 1/2 orange cauliflower broken into small pieces of florets
- olive oil
- salt
Method
1. Brown the beef cheeks one by one with some oil in a cast iron pot. Take it out and set aside.
2. Heat up some oil in the same cast iron pan, add the onion, carrot, garlic cloves, bay leaves and fry until softened and fragrant. Add the masala wine to the mixture to deglaze, then add the beef cheeks back into the pot, with the chicken stock, red wine, thyme, salt and pepper. Ensure there is enough liquid to just cover the beef cheeks, add more chicken stock if needed. Bring it to boil and reduce to simmer on the lowest heat for the 3+ hrs until the meat is soft and tender.
3. When the beef cheeks are cooked, take out the meat from sauce. Bring the sauce to boil and reduce until it's thick and almost glaze like. Pass the sauce through a sieve before returning it back to the pot with the beef cheeks. Keep warm for serving later.
5. Start on the cauliflower half an hour prior to serving time. In a heavy sauce pan, add half of the cauliflower with cream, butter, chicken stock, salt and pepper. Cook over low heat for approximately 30 minutes until softened. Blend it in a food processor for a smooth puree.
6. While the cauliflower is slowly simmering in the sauce pan, pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees. Season the residual half of the cauliflower and coat it with oil. Put it into a baking tray and bake it in the oven for approximately 10 minutes or until cooked.
7. Assemble the dish by placing some puree in the middle of the plate, topped with beef cheeks, roasted cauliflower and garnish. Enjoy while it's hot.
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