Slow cooked beef cheeks in red wine sauce
In recent years, beef cheeks meat has gained quite a lot of popularity. It is no surprise anymore that this meat, next to other cuts of beef such as steak or sirloin, reigns in the menu of many restaurants. Properly prepared beef cheeks are extremely tasty and also cheap.
The most delicious beef cheeks are obtained by cooking the meat long and slowly. Vegetables, herbs and often red wine are added while cooking this meat. As for vegetable additions and herbs, root vegetables such as carrots, parsley or celeriac root, and herbs such as thyme and rosemary are used most often.
Below, you can find a recipe for slowly cooked beef cheeks in red wine sauce. To prepare the beef cheeks, I used vegetables, rosemary, a little garlic and beef broth. I cooked the cheeks in a pot on the stove. Another option is to put them in a casserole dish and roast them slowly in the oven. I served the cheeks with boiled potatoes and cauliflower puree and parsley.
Find me on Instagram: mecooksblog and Facebook: MeCooksblog
Ingredients for beef cheeks in red wine sauce.
- 1 kg beef cheeks
- 2 big twigs of rosemary
- 150 g white onion
- 200 g carrot (peeled)
- 300 ml dry red wine
- 3 tablespoons of sunflower oil
- 2 big cloves of garlic
- 1 and 1/2 full teaspoon of salt
- 1/6 teaspoon of black pepper
- 2 bay leaves
- 100 g parsnip (peeled)
- 400 ml beef broth
- 1 tablespoon of butter
How to make beef cheeks in red wine sauce.
Clean the meat, remove the membranes and cut into smaller pieces (mine were 14 by 8 centimetres big). Sprinkle each piece with 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Pour half of the oil into a pot, heat it up and, when hot, put in the beef cheeks. Fry over a high heat for about a minute on each side then transfer them on a plate, pour the remaining oil into the pot, add butter and finely chopped onion. Fry for 2-3 minutes over medium heat.
Next, add finely chopped garlic and carry on frying for a few seconds, then add the diced carrots and parsley and continue frying for 3-4 minutes. After that, add rosemary, bay leaves and wine, increase the heat to high and cook for 3-4 minutes, so that the alcohol evaporates from the wine. After this time, pour in the beef broth, put the beef cheeks in and cover the pot with a lid. Simmer on a very low heat until it becomes easy to stick a fork in the meat. At that point, take the meat out, remove the rosemary sprigs, add the remaining salt, pepper and blend the vegetables in the pot with a blender. Put the meat back in the sauce, put the pot back on the heat and stew for 20-25 minutes. Serve the beef cheeks with potatoes and your favourite salad.
Good to know when making slow cooked beef.
How much you need to cook beef cheeks depends on their size and thickness and may take between 3 and even 6 hours. I stewed the beef cheeks for 5 hours. Afterwards, I took them out of the pot, blended the vegetables into a sauce and transferred the cheeks to it. All together, I cooked them for 25 more minutes. In the end, the cheeks were very soft and were almost falling apart.
What to serve beef cheeks with? I really like serving beef cheeks with mashed potatoes or vegetables, fried dumplings or galuska. In addition to it, I also serve either fresh or cooked vegetables with it. Fried beetroot, boiled beans and glazed vegetables work best for me.
Do you like dishes made with beef? If so, try our recipe for Beef burgers.
