Braised Beef Cheeks with Potato Puree

Cook Time 4 hours plus overnight marinating

Servings  4-6

Ingredients

Red Wine Marinade

2 bottles of red wine

2 carrots, chopped

1 celery, chopped

3 white onions, chopped

½ cup canola oil

2 bunches of thyme

Beef Cheeks

4.5kg beef cheeks

Red wine marinade, to cover 

60g olive oil

2 carrot, diced

2 yellow onion, diced

½ celery root, diced

20g tomato paste

1L red wine

4 quart veal stock

To Finish The Sauce

1L cooking liquid 

500l reduced veal

Butter 

Thyme leafs

Potato Puree

6 peeled Yukon potatoes

8g tsp salt, divided

160g cup Brown Butter 

150g cup cream

Roasted Button Mushrooms

1kg cleaned button mushrooms

Sherry vinegar

Butter 

Thyme leaves 

Method

For the red wine marinade, sweat Mirepoix in oil. Add wine and thyme and reduce by half. Chill. Marinate the beef cheek in the red wine marinade overnight. After 12 hours, remove cheeks from marinade and discard liquid.

Sear cheeks in olive oil. Remove the excess fat from the pan. Add the diced vegetables and sweat. Add tomato paste and deglaze with red wine. Add veal stock, bring to boil and braise in the preheated oven at 175°C for the first 1.5 hours. Then reduce to 150°C for 1.5 hours until cooked through. Approx, 3 hours in total.

Strain the liquid and discard vegetables. Pour liquid over cheeks and cool in liquid. When cool remove cheeks and reduce liquid to jus consistency straining often. Reserve Jus for sauce. Cryovac cheeks for storage.

To finish the sauce, heat both liquids. Combine and reduce by ⅓. Finish with butter and thyme. Season to taste.

For the potato puree, in a pot, cover the potatoes with cold water and place over high heat. When the water comes to a simmer, reduce the heat to low. Season the water with 8g tablespoon of the salt. Continue to simmer until the potatoes are tender.

While the potatoes are cooking, heat the brown butter, milk, and cream in a separate pot until barely simmering. Keep hot.

Drain the cooked potatoes and mill through a ricer. Pass the milled potatoes through a fine mesh tamis. Transfer the potatoes to a bowl and mix with the hot butter mixture. Season the potatoes with the remaining salt. Keep the potato puree hot.

For the roasted button mushrooms, roast the mushrooms until totally golden brown. Deglaze with sherry vinegar. Re-roast. Finish with butter and fresh thyme.

Serve the beef cheek with potato puree, mushrooms and sauce.