Recipes, Beef Recipes

Braised Ox Cheek Recipe with Flageolet Beans and Turnip

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Ox Cheek Recipe: With the colder months settling in, it’s the perfect time to return to hearty, comforting dishes. Classed as beef offal, ox cheek offers deep flavour and a tender, sticky texture that only improves with slow cooking. It’s also remarkably forgiving, as the longer it simmers, the more yielding it becomes.

This is robust French farmhouse cooking at its best. I recommend serving it with sharp Dijon mustard and a bottle of good claret for a properly satisfying winter meal.

Ox cheeks, turnips and flagolet beans braised in sauce, inside a high-sided, white cast iron pan, viewed from above. Dark tea towel around half the perimeter of the pan to the left, cutlery beneath, two pale blue empty bowls top right.

Serves 6

Ingredients

Method

  1. In a large casserole dish, heat the olive oil and gently sauté the shallots, taking care not to burn the oil. Cook slowly until they turn a deep golden colour.
  2. Add the garlic cloves and continue to cook until they too take on a rich golden hue.
  3. Splash in the vinegar and let it evaporate. Sprinkle the caster sugar over the shallots and garlic, then continue cooking until the sugar caramelises and everything turns a deep amber.
  4. Remove the shallots and garlic to a plate.
  5. Dredge the ox cheek pieces in seasoned flour. In the same pan, melt the butter and brown the meat carefully on all sides, taking care not to burn the butter.
  6. Stir in the tomato purée and cook for a minute or two, allowing it to catch slightly on the bottom of the pan. Return the shallots and garlic, add the thyme, bay leaf and peppercorns, then pour in the wine and beef stock.
  7. Bring to a gentle simmer, cover with a lid, and reduce the heat to keep a very soft bubble. Cook for 2 to 2½ hours until the meat is tender.
  8. After 1 hour, lift the lid and nestle the turnips between the meat. Pour in the flageolet beans. If the liquid looks low, top up with a splash of water. The sauce should be thick enough to coat the back of a spoon by the end.
  9. Taste and adjust the seasoning as needed.
  10. Serve with crusty baguette and a glass of what’s left in the bottle. A good walk or a nap afterwards is highly recommended.

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Valentine Warner is a chef, food writer, business owner and broadcaster, with a deep interest in nature, travel and provincial food. He describes his cooking style as ‘International Grandmother’ and combines his strong sense of storytelling with his infectious love of cookery. Val has a deep respect and understanding of ingredients, both wild and cultivated, and has the instinctive ability to rustle up hearty and wholesome meals from whatever’s available. Val is an avid proponent of native food sources, and finds common ground with Swaledale in their work to deliver top-notch meat, within a truthful, ethical and high welfare framework. Originally a trained portrait painter, Val has also authored 5 cookbooks, managed his own catering company and is a co-owner of Taqueria, a West London Mexican cafe. Val is also a partner in the Hepple Distillery in Northumberland and Holmen Lofoten hotel on arctic Norway’s Lofoten island.