This is a real hearty recipe. A long cook where the incredible flavor of the ox cheeks get to play first fiddle. Ox cheeks are fibrous and tough, as they’ve worked hard, so they need a long cook to become tender and almost fall apart. We do this by braising them in red wine for several hours until they’re done.
Servings 4
Ingredients
- 2 ox cheeks (ca 14 oz each)
- 2 carrots
- 1 yellow onion
- 1 fennel (small)
- 1 tsp thyme (dried)
- 15 white pepper corns
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 bottle full bodied red wine
Mash
- 6 potatoes
- 1 cup double cream
- 1 tbsp butter
- 2 tsp salt
- 1 pinch black pepper
- 1 pinch white pepper
- 1 pinch sugar
Sauce
- The sauce from the braising pot
- 2 tbsp Hoisin sauce
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 2 tbsp corn starch (for thickening)
Instructions
- Start by trimming fat, membranes and tendons from the ox cheeks. Peel the onion and carrots, and chop very coarsely including the fennel.
- Brown the ox cheeks in a large pan with some butter. Then add all the other ingredients, and let is simmer slowly for 3-4 hours with the lid on.
Mash
- Peel the potatoes, cut them into smaller pieces and boil them until soft. Mash them and add the cream, salt and pepper, and a pinch of sugar. Stir and add more salt if needed. Make sure the mash is smooth, if not, add more cream. If you feel like it, add some ground nutmeg, it is always a good addition to mashed potatoes.
Sauce
- Pour the sauce from the braising pot through a metal mesh sieve into a sauce pan. Add the Hoisin sauce, salt and sugar. Bring it to simmer. Add the corn starch, and bring it to boil, while whisking. Then take it off the stove.
- Serve it all on a warm plate with some vegetables and black currant jam. Spoon over some sauce over the meat. Enjoy!