Braised Ox Cheek with Carrot Puree and Spring Vegetables

For my money, there are two kinds of people in this world:

A: People willing to try things
B: People not willing to try things

Type B people annoy me when it comes to food. Fortunately, Vanessa and I and a vast majority of our friends are Type A folks, so that's been working out well. I even have a few converts in the works, which is fun. Why do I mention this?

Ox cheeks. Was your initial reaction disgust? (Type B response) Or was your initial reaction "Hmmm... I wonder what that tastes like," or "I remember the last time I had it and it was the most tender, succulent and awesome piece of meat I've ever had." (Type A response)

After all, it's just protein. A collection of muscle fibers. No different sitting raw on your cutting board than any fillet steak, or leg meat, or rib, or shin, or chop. All there is is protein. And depending on which part of the animal the cut came from, will determine how much sinew and fat content the cut has (depending on what kind/how much work the muscle did) and thus, how it should best be cooked.

Ox cheeks appear on many of the best fine dining restaurant menus in the Europe. This is not intended to confuse or disgust their diners. It's not some kind of trick... I mean, the chefs aren't sitting back in the kitchen, peering through the window in the door to see if a diner ACTUALLY puts it in his/her mouth, so they can all snicker to one another and call it 'gross'.

It might just be because it is awesome. And if you never try it, you'll never know. I am here to tell you that for slow-cooking, low-heat applications, nothing beats the cheek for softness, tenderness and flavor. It is amazing. Also, it is by weight, one of the cheapest cuts you can buy. This is because of a few things:

1) Demand is not high because
a) people think it's gross (without having tried it)
b) people don't know how to prepare it

Now onto the recipe.

Word of warning: While I admire Tetsuya Wakuda, widely considered the best chef in Australia, his cookbook is lacking in the area of the descriptiveness of his recipes. The recipes assume a pretty high baseline of knowledge. Fortunately, I have enough knowledge to be dangerous. The recipe below it reprinted as it appeared in his cookbook. Items in parenthesis are mine, slipped in to clairfy some key points, such as: how long to cook this for and at what heat.

All that aside, the dish was amazing. The cheeks were wonderful and succulent, with semi-gelatinous strip running through the middle which broke down during cooking and created the most wonderful mouthfeel. The veggies were not a mere afterthought, but really cut through the richness of the meat. We're about to go cheek-crazy here soon. Look for more animal's cheeks in the coming weeks.

And rhymes.

2 ox cheeks, approximately 400 g each
plain flour for dusting
1 tablespoon grapeseed oil
1 liters chicken stock
100 ml soy sauce
1 leek, halved
2 stalks celery, left whole
200 ml sake
2 medium-sized carrots, whole
sea salt and white pepper
4-6 asparagus, halved
6 snowpeas
12 butter beans, halved
3- 4 baby carrots
1 large handful spinach

Clean the ox cheeks and cut into 4 pieces. Lightly dust with some plain flour and brown in the grapeseed oil in a frying pan. Transfer the browned pieces to a stockpot and cover with the chicken stock, soy sauce, leek, celery and sake. Add the medium-sized carrots. (Bring the liquid to a simmer. Cook the cheeks for 3 hours - until tender and soft) Once the carrots are soft (after an hour or so) remove from the pot and puree in a food processor. Adjust the puree to your desired consistency with more stock. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Keep cooking the ox cheeks over a low flame until tender, taking care not to overcook. Remove the cheeks from the pot and place on a plate. Cover with another plate and weigh down the ox cheeks. (Rest the ox cheeks like this for at least 20 minutes - you can finish the veggies and reduce the sauce during this resting time.)

Blanch the asparagus, snowpeas, beans, baby carrots and spinach separately.

(Reduce the cooking liquid at a rapid boil until it reaches desired consistency, or you can't take waiting anymore.)

To serve, place a little spinach at the base of each plate. Top with the ox cheek and spoon over some carrot puree. Place the asparagus, snowpeas, beans and baby carrots on top, and spoon over some sauce.