Ox Cheeks (slow cooked)

By slow cooking the beef or ox cheek, you end up with super tender meat that almost melts in the mouth. The recipe below will feed 2/3 people. I use a pressure cooker for this recipe but there is no reson you can't use a slow cooker or the oven. The difference is that the pressure cooker takes about 1 hour, the oven takes about 4 hours and a slow cooker on low about 12 hours.....

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp light olive oil
• 750gms of ox cheek - cut up into large sized peices
• 1 onion - diced
• 1 celery stick - diced
• 1 carrot - diced
• 2 large cloves of garlic - crushed
• 1 stems of fresh thyme
• 1 or 2 bay leaves
• 250ml beef stock
• 350ml of full bodies red wine
• 1 tbsp of black treacle
• Salt & Pepper

Firstly you need to season the meat pieces with salt and pepper and then brown the meat pieces all over in a hot frying pan with 1 tbsp of the olive oil. Ensure you have removed any fat peices from the outside of the meat. Put the seared meat to one side, add the remaining oil to the pan, lower the heat and add the onion and garlic and cook until soft. Then add the celery and carrot and cook for 5 mins.

Add all of the ingredients to the pressue cooker and cook for 1 hour. (ensure all of the meat is covered by liquid)

Once cooled down, you can remove all of the meat from the cooking liquor and then strain this off, discarding the solids. (it is possible to liquidise this complete liquor but I prefer a richer sauce).
Return the liquid to the pressure cooker and reduce until you have a thick and sticky sauce. Season to taste. Add the meat back and coat in the sauce. Keep warm until ready to serve.

Point to note: if you use a stock cube as your source of beef stock, please be careful in the amount of salt you add as the reduction of the sauce could make it become a little salty. I tend to use Knorr Touch of Taste Concentrated liquis stock.

Serve with vegetables of your choice but horseradish mash is a good place to start!!!