Beef Cheek Ragu
Serves: 8.
RECIPE COURTESY OF http://www.anotherfoodblogger.com follow on Instagram at: http://instagram.com/another_food_blogger
Ingredients:
- 1 kg beef cheeks
- 1 celery – diced
- 1 carrot – diced
- 1 white onion – diced
- 6 cloves garlic – finely chopped
- 1 red chili – finely chopped
- 1 thumbsized piece ginger – finely chopped or grated
- 4 sprigs thyme
- 1 piece of star anise
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- 500ml red wine
- 500ml beef stock
- 1 can diced tomatoes
- Salt/Pepper
Gremolata
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1/2 lemon – juiced
- small bunch of parsley – finely chopped (approx 2 tbsp)
- small handful of chives – finely chopped (approx 2 tbsp)
- salt & pepper
Breadcrumbs
- 4 slices of bread, preferably old
- Zest of 1 lemon
- 1 tbsp Olive oil
- 1 tsp Herbes de Provence
- 1 tsp Chili flakes
Salt/pepper
Fettucine or Pappardelle pasta
Method
Breadcrumbs
- Blend bread in small hand processor.
- Fry bread on medium heat in pan with rest of the ingredients, stirring regularly.
- Once bread crumbs are crispy spread onto a baking sheet or plate to cool.
- Breadcrumbs will keep for about 1 month in cool, dry place.
Gremolata
- Stir all ingredients together in a small bowl and serve immediately or store in fridge until ready.
Beef Cheeks
- Cut beef cheeks into smaller sized pieces, I had 2 x 500g beef cheeks that I cut into 3 equal sizes.
- Oil and season beef cheeks. Sear in a hot pan until golden brown on every side – approx 5 minutes.
- Remove beef cheeks and leave on a clean plate.
- Add vegetables to pan, turn down to a medium heat and cook until soft – approx 5 minutes.
- Add wine & stock and bring to a simmer.
- Add tomato paste, herbs & spices and stir.
- Place beef cheeks in pot and if needed top with a little water until cheeks are submerged.
- Cover with a lid or aluminium foil and place in oven @ 180c for 3hrs.
- Remove from oven and test cheeks with tongs to see if they are cooked. You are looking for the cheeks to be tender and to pull apart easily. If necessary place back in oven for 15-20 minutes.
- Remove pan from oven, discard thyme sprigs, star anise and bay leaves.
- Place pan on a low heat and reduce braising liquid by 1/2 – approx 15mins.
- While reducing the liquid cook pasta according to packet.
Serving
- Drain pasta.
- Add some ragu to pasta and stir together.
- Spoon pasta/ragu on to plate and top with a little more ragu.
- Drizzle gremolata over ragu.
- Sprinkle breadcrumbs on top.