Braised Beef Cheek in Red Wine with Horseradish Mash, Mushrooms, Onions, Lardons recipe by Daniel Clifford

Daniel Clifford

Daniel Clifford

18th June 2018
Daniel Clifford

Braised Beef Cheek in Red Wine with Horseradish Mash, Mushrooms, Onions, Lardons recipe by Daniel Clifford

Braised Beef Cheek in Red Wine with Horseradish Mash, Mushrooms, Onions, Lardons this recipe is from Midsummer House 1998 and features in Daniel Cliffords new book Out of my Tree.

I had to take over the running of The Flitch of Bacon full time in 2016, due to an incident involving a chef, a fire extinguisher and a waitress’ head. It did give me the opportunity to show Nathan Sidebottom and Sofian Msetfi the true classics though, including this recipe.

Ingredients

  • Red wine sauce:
  • 1 banana shallot, sliced
  • ½ stick of celery, sliced
  • 20g tomato purée
  • 100ml red wine vinegar
  • 1 litre brown veal stock
  • 500ml brown chicken stock
  • 2 sprigs each of parsley, thyme and tarragon
  • 2 black peppercorns
  • 2 cloves of garlic
  • 2 plum tomatoes
  • 500ml red wine
  • 250ml Ruby Port
  • Beef cheeks:
  • 2 beef cheeks
  • 2 bottles of red wine
  • 1 bulb of garlic
  • 2 sprigs of thyme
  • 2 black peppercorns
  • 4 parsley sprigs
  • 1 bottle of Port
  • Horseradish pomme pureé:
  • 700g Rooster potatoes, peeled and diced
  • 100ml milk and 100g butter
  • 25g Colman’s horseradish sauce
  • Lardons:
  • 200g smoked streaky bacon
  • Turned mushrooms:
  • 16 medium-sized white button mushrooms
  • Green beans:
  • 200g green beans
  • SPINACH
  • 50g butter
  • 250g baby spinach, picked and washed
  • Baby onions:
  • 100g baby silver skin onions
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 1 sprig of thyme
  • 5g Maldon sea salt
  • 5ml extra-virgin olive oil
  • Shallot rings:
  • 1 banana shallot and 50g rice flour

Method

Red wine sauce:
Caramelise the shallot and celery separately in butter until golden brown. Strain off the fat and combine the vegetables in a large pan. Add the tomato purée and cook out for 30 seconds, stirring continuously. Add the red wine vinegar and reduce by half. Pour in both stocks and bring to the boil, skimming off any impurities. Add in the herbs, peppercorns, garlic and tomatoes and cook for 20 minutes. In a separate pan, reduce the red wine and Port by two thirds. Pass the sauce through a fine sieve into a muslin cloth, wash the muslin cloth and then pass the sauce through it six more times to get a clean, glossy sauce. Pass the red wine reduction through a double layer of muslin into the sauce, stir to combine and then chill.
Beef cheeks:
Marinate the beef cheeks in all the ingredients apart from the Port and 1 bottle of the red wine for 24 hours, then remove and drain the cheeks. Lightly season the cheeks, and caramelise in a hot pan to get a good colour all over. Place the beef cheeks in a pressure cooker with the red wine sauce on full heat. When the pressure cooker has come up to temperature, turn down to a medium heat and cook for 1 hour. Release the pressure and check the cheeks; the meat should be soft, if tough place back in the cooker for 10-15 minutes and allow the cheeks to cool down naturally in the liquor. Once cool, place in the fridge to set overnight. Pass the liquor through a fine sieve onto a single layer of muslin. Reduce the Port and remaining red wine, add to the beef cooking liquor, and reduce to a sauce consistency. Pass through a double layer of muslin six times. Portion the cheeks into two to four pieces, depending on their size, and set aside.
Horseradish pomme purée:
Place the potatoes in pan of cold water with a pinch of salt and bring to the boil, then turn the heat down and simmer until tender. Drain the potatoes and let them air dry for 1 minute, pass through a drum sieve and place back in the pan. Bring milk to the boil and add it to the potatoes slowly, folding in with the butter and horseradish sauce to make a glossy purée. Season with salt and place in a piping bag with a 1cm nozzle.
Lardons:
Freeze the bacon. When frozen, slice to 5mm thickness on an electric slicer, then cut the bacon into 5mm lardons. Place in a pan with cold water and bring to the boil, drain and refresh under running cold water, then put on a tray with kitchen paper to dry. Heat 40 grams of butter in a frying pan to get it foaming, add the bacon and cook until nicely golden brown and crispy. Drain and put on kitchen towel to absorb excess fat.
Turned mushrooms:
Turn the mushrooms. Rub them in oil and place on a fork, then scorch the mushrooms on the hottest point of the solid top of the cooker.
Green beans:
Top and tail the beans. Bring a large pan of water to the boil, add salt, and blanch the beans for 3 minutes. Refresh in iced water, drain, and store in a plastic container on clean kitchen paper.
Spinach:
Melt the butter in a pan and add the spinach. Lightly season, constantly moving the spinach until it has all wilted. Drain on a clean kitchen cloth to remove any excess water from the spinach.
Baby onions:
Wrap the onions with the other ingredients in tin foil to make a parcel. Cook at 180°c for 15 minutes, or until the onions are done. Allow to cool and then cut in half through the root and remove the outer skin.
Shallot rings:
Finely slice the shallot on a mandoline. Pop out into rings and drop these into the rice flour. Fry the rings at 160°c until crisp and golden. Drain on kitchen paper and season lightly with salt.
To finish:
Gently heat the beef cheeks in the sauce, heat the beans in a butter emulsion and then colour the baby onion halves in butter. Warm through the other components and bring everything together on the plate.

In these challenging times…

The Staff Canteen team are taking a different approach to keeping our website independent and delivering content free from commercial influence. Our Editorial team have a critical role to play in informing and supporting our audience in a balanced way. We would never put up a paywall  – The Staff Canteen is open to all and we want to keep bringing you the content you want; more from younger chefs, more on mental health, more tips and industry knowledge, more recipes and more videos. We need your support right now, more than ever, to keep The Staff Canteen active. Without your financial contributions this would not be possible.

Over the last 16 years, The Staff Canteen has built what has become the go-to platform for chefs and hospitality professionals. As members and visitors, your daily support has made The Staff Canteen what it is today. Our features and videos from the world’s biggest name chefs are something we are proud of. We have over 560,000 followers across Facebook, X, Instagram, YouTube and other social channels, each connecting with chefs across the world. Our editorial and social media team are creating and delivering engaging content every day, to support you and the whole sector - we want to do more for you.

A single coffee is more than £2, a beer is £4.50 and a large glass of wine can be £6 or more.

Support The Staff Canteen from as little as £1 today. Thank you.