Braised Ox Cheek with Winter Root Mash

Name: Braised Ox Cheek with Winter Root Mash
Cook time: 240 min
Total time: 240 min
Cuisine: British
Ingredients: 1 Trimmed ox cheek; 3 Large Carrots; 1 medium/large onion; ½ cup washed red lentils; ½ cup pearl barley; 2 bay leaves; large glass good red wine; litre vegetable stock; splash olive oil

Over a year ago 5,899 views

Cook: 240 mins

British Main Course 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Family Food ❄️ Winter

Ingredients

1 Trimmed ox cheek
3 Large Carrots
1 medium/large onion
½ cup washed red lentils
½ cup pearl barley
2 bay leaves
large glass good red wine
litre vegetable stock
splash olive oil

Accompaniment

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Method

1
Forgotten what a really good old-fashioned beef stew is like? Try this simple slow-cooked recipe. Ox cheeks are now available again, usually conveniently prepared and frozen. Ox cheek has a really good flavour but is more subtle than oxtail. This recipe is also fine using shin of beef. (Serves 3-4)

Method
Slice the ox cheek into 6-8 slices. Gently heat some oil in a cast-iron casserole, lightly brown the meat then set meat aside on a plate. Chop onion coarsely and soften in casserole on a low heat. Slice the carrots thickly (slice diagonally to produce long ovals), add to onions, put on lid and sweat the veg down gently for a few minutes. Add the meat, lentils, pearl barley, bay leaves and red wine then cover with stock. (If to your taste, some mushrooms and a little softened celery could also be added) Put lid on casserole and cook in oven for about four hours (Check and stir two or three times during cooking and top-up liquid as required) 150 Degrees in a fan oven- no hotter. Season towards end of cooking if required ( I have not tried this in a slow-cooker, but expect it would be fine so long as the ingredients are browned/softened as above beforehand) The meat should now be very, very tender.
Serve with root mash (multi-mash). Boil any combination of potatoes, celeriac, parsnips and swede then mash with some butter. (Try a pinch of grated nutmeg in mash sometime)
Tip. When making multi-mash, cook a lot. You can freeze the remainder. This can later be used as it is, used to make a great bubble and squeak with left-over cabbage or sprouts, or used to make a cheese and onion pie.