slow cooked beef cheek with liquorice and chilli

Serves 8 -10

5 beef cheeks, trimmed and halved
30g liquorice root
20g star anise
25g cinnamon sticks
10g whole white pepper

60g minced ginger:garlic
750ml ABC ketyap manis
300g mandarin juice

10 Thai chillies, not deseeded and finely chopped

peel from 6 mandarins….this can be substituted with 20g powdered mandarin peel added to the spice mix

200g gluten free cornflour
5g freshly and finely ground white pepper
100g approximately EVO or vegetable oil
750ml red wine

Weigh all of the dried spices into a Thermo and powder.

Weigh the ginger:garlic, ketyap manis, mandarin juice and half of the chilli and whisk together, then whisk in the ground dry spice.

Mix together the cornflour and pepper, coat the beef cheeks and then fry them in oil with the pieces of mandarin peel until they are lightly browned on all sides and drop them into the marinade…deglaze the pan with the red wine and keep it separate.

Cover the cheeks and marinate for 24 hours in the fridge.

Cooking method
Sous vide

Keeping the marinade, drain the cheeks and vac them hard…sous vide@ 68°C for 12 hours…rapid chill.

To serve
Set up a sous vide bath 70°C; put the cheeks into the bath and set a timer for 30 minutes.

Put the marinade and red wine into a wok and whisk together…reduce on high heat, stirring frequently until you have a good sauce consistency. Put a colander in a bowl and open the vacced cheeks into the colander. Without delay, add the juices to the sauce and bring it back to a good sauce consistency, turn the heat down to very low, add the beef cheeks and stir over. Cover with a lid and hold until ready to serve.

Steam injected oven
160°C 50% steam

Using tongs put the cheeks into an appropriately sized stainless baking dish. Put the marinade into a wok and whisk in the reserved deglaze and red wine and bring it to the boil. Pour over the cheeks, cover with a layer of baking paper and then tightly cover with a double layer of aluminum foil.

Set a time for three hours….very carefully life up the foil and turn them over and recover and cook for another three hours. You may need to reduce the sauce a little.

Slow Cookers
We do use slow cookers for a number of techniques, especially confit but we do not like the flavour of dishes like the beef cheeks cooked in them.