Beef Cheeks, new years

We had the horde at our place for new years eve and it was put to me to sort out the non liquid nourishments, I quite frankly had my heart set on revisiting the Dr pepper-miso short ribs that I had dabbled with previously, pretty damn stubbornly I might add too, but with leaving the shopping too late and only one suitable rack of ribs at the store, reluctantly (read: kicking and screaming) I changed my mind and used beef cheeks, so there were a couple of alterations to make, no longer sticky finger licking ribs, it would be unctuous melt in the mouth beef cheeks that had been braised on a bed of peppers, onion, carrot and cilantro roots, served in a tortilla with all the trimmings.

12 Beef Cheeks
1 Can of Dr Pepper (reduced to 125 ml)
2 tsp Miso paste (shiro)
3 Chipotle Chillies
1 tsp Cider vinegar
Coriander Seeds (pulverised)
Splash, dash or glug of oil


Divide the beef cheeks between some zip lock bags. Combine all the other ingredients together in a bowl, check seasoning, then pour into the bags, massage the marinade into the meat, seal and refrigerate overnight.


In a dish large enough to hold the cheeks make a bed of diced red onion, carrots, capsicum and coriander roots (use the leaves as a garnish). Place the cheeks on top of the vegetables and pour over the marinade. Cover with a double layer of tin foil and cook for 5 hours at 130ºC

After 5 hours strain the liquid off and discard the vegetables, add a couple of chipotles to the liquid. Pour the liquid along with the cheeks back into the roasting pan, cover and cook for another 30 minutes.


Remove the cheeks and set aside. Pour the cooking liquid into a pan and reduce until thickened, season. Slice the beef cheeks and set in a serving dish, pour the reduced cooking liquid over. Cover until ready to serve.

We had the cheeks in corn tortillas with a variety of toppings we had assembled around the dish of beefy goodness on the table, made for a fuss free meal, as everyone could pick and mix as they liked.


Also finally managed to crack open my second brew, pleasantly surprised at how good it is, I don’t know how much longer it will last, I’m trying to ration it but I am weak willed. I have another very hoppy bitter IPA on the go and a ginger beer that is very very dry and very very alcoholic (a slight miscalculation).

Braised Beef Cheeks

Slow cooked meat is awesome, melt in the mouth, big rich flavours, it’s all good, apart from the time it takes to get the result, you can cheat it with a pressure cooker, well the texture kind of, but you can’t cheat the rich strong flavour that a three hour braise produces, which is a problem when it’s a Wednesday night at 6pm and you have beef cheeks you really want to eat, but like hell you’re going to wait til what will probably be a 10pm dinner time. So like the crazy food weirdo that I am, I think hey I can cook two meals tonight, I don’t need to be sociable, I’ll just set up shop in the kitchen for the night. With one dinner made, and ate, I set about getting a beef cheek braise on the go, I figure if I get it in the oven by 8pm and cook it for 3 hours at 140ºC, I should be able to get it cool enough and get it in the fridge overnight to be finished off the next day.

2 Beef cheeks
2 Carrots, diced
1 Onion, diced
2 Celery stalks, diced
1 tsp Smoked sweet paprika
1 tsp Hot paprika
1 tsp Mustard
1 tbsp of Garlic confit
1 tbsp Tomato paste
250 ml Red wine
50 ml Tawny port
2 Bay leaves
1 Bunch of thyme

Preheat the oven to 140ºC

Brown the cheeks in a little olive oil, remove and place in a casserole dish (or dutch oven, I would have used one, but the enamel on mine exploded off with some gusto a while back and I haven’t replace it yet).

Sweat the onion, carrots and celery in the pan.

Add the paprikas, mustard, tomato paste, and garlic, cook until fragrant.

Deglaze with the port, and when almost evaporated add the red wine, bay leaves and thyme, simmer for a couple of minutes.

Pour the mixture over the cheeks and place on a lid, or cover tightly with a double layer of tinfoil. Cook for 3–4 hours.

When done, carefully remove the cheeks to warm bowl, and strain the liquid into the same, the vegetables have done their work, and will be pretty bland, so just discard them.

While the meat rests in its sauce, prepare the polenta. I unashamedly use instant polenta, good for you if you have the time and patience to put up with making the regular kind, and for putting up with the burns you get from popping bubbles of steamy polenta hell. Bring 500ml Chicken stock to the boil, remove from the heat and whisk in 125 grams of instant polenta, keep whisking until thick, you may have to put it back on the heat for a couple of seconds, but usually it isn’t needed. Add half a tub of crème fraîche and whisk in until fully incorporated.

Spoon a pillow of polenta onto a plate, take a cheek and slice it in three, then rest it on the polenta, spoon over a generous amount of sauce, and finish with a grating of a nice nutty cheese and a sprinkling of herbs.

Two Weeks of Food Madness (Bliss?)

Wellington on a plate has wrapped up, two weeks of food madness finished, and many a oyster eaten. There have been, apart from all the great restaurant deals, some great events, and it ended appropriately for some food bloggers, with a two day conference held mainly at Le Cordon Bleu. Thanks to all of the sponsors and organisers of the conference, check out the list of the great people who made everything possible. Can’t wait for next year. Once I’ve had a decent chance to sort out all the photos I took, I will probably do a gallery post about the conference.

Le Cordon Bleu— The New Zealand Chocolate Festival— T Leaf T—Archer McRae– Alessandra Zecchini– The Dumpling House–The Gourmet Gannet–Grow from Here–HarperCollins Publishers–The Kitchen-Maid—L’affaire Au Chocolat–Moon Over Martinborough–My Darling Lemon Thyme—Peoples Coffee–Positively Wellington Tourism–Six Barrel Soda Co.–Viviane Perényi–Yellow Brick Road—Wellington on A Plate–Boulcott St Bistro–Coco–Fork & Brewer—Foxglove–General Practitioner–Hummingbird—Maginnity’s—Monsoon Poon–The Tasting Room—Ti Kouka—Floriditas–Floyd’s–Liquid Winks–Moore Wilson–Pop Dining–Regal Salmon–Little Penang–Omega Seafood—Bongusto—St Clair—Man O War—Neudorf—100% Nutz–All Good Bananas–Aroha–The Collective Dairy–EcoStore—Equagold–Kokako–Little Bird–Love Plant Life–R Qute–Holy Moly Ice Cream—Mad Millie—Intercontinental–House of Sabra–Eat & Greet–So D’Lish

I entered a couple of recipes in Stuff’s My Dish competition, and both of them won their category. Entrée (for Arbitrageur): pork hock with pickled rhubarb & Bistro Classic (for Boulcott Street Bistro): pork cheek confit with fennel and apple sauce. They ended up on the menu of the respective restaurants for a week, which is pretty cool, and awesome seeing someone else interpret my recipe. Check out the recipes, pork cheek confit and pork hock cake.

Last but not least, as I mentioned in my previous post, I was one of the presenters for the City Market Visa Wellington on a Plate event, Pecha Kucha: Imbibe. Well the videos are now on YouTube, I can’t embed them, but you can see my presentation here, and the playlist for the others here.

Pork Cheek Bacon

The pork cheek that I made confit with, came with its twin, which I turned into that wonderful meat product called bacon. I used the same process as the previous bacon I posted about. I make a few alterations though, firstly, and the easiest way to change things, I used different herbs and spices in the cure, and I gave it coating of white pepper powder before I hung it, secondly, I wrapped it in cheesecloth when I hung it, and lastly, after smoking it, I pressed it overnight in the fridge.


Thyme, Muscovado sugar and Szechuan pepper. These get combined with the 5% curing mix.


Rinsed, and patted dry after seven days of curing in the fridge (flipping each day).


Dusted in white pepper.


Wrapped in cheesecloth and tied, ready to hang for seven days.


Unwrapped after a week under the stairs. You'll notice a little white fuzz on the pork, that's a small amount of mold, it's important to keep an eye out for it.


It doesn't mean you have to throw away your porky goodness, just wipe off the mold with a paper towel dampened with some vinegar. But if you leave the mold unchecked for too long, it can grow into the interior of the meat, making it inedible.


Smoked to an internal temperature of 65°C, the smoker shouldn't go above 85°C.


Pressed between to baking dishes overnight.


Sliced, portioned and packaged.

Note: Check the pork cheek for glands, if found, remove. If meat comes from a butcher/supermarket you shouldn't find any, but best to check.

Pork Cheek Confit

Let me start out with the obvious, this dish is made with a lot of fat, heaps of it, that doesn’t mean it will make it to the plate though, it is just a means to a delicious end. I feel I should point out I’m not using a fashionable fat here either, I’m not talking about confiting in olive oil or duck fat, no I’m using good old fashioned very tasty and awesome lard. Come on, I’m confiting pork here, what did you expect me to use? Lard isn’t that bad, it has a bad rap more from bad memories and the jazzercise health police, rather than facts. You think duck fat roasted potatoes are a health food? Well no... But duck fat is a popular fat, so thoughts of ill health effects slip greasily to the back of the mind, Butter is fat du jour, and Olive oil will cure what ails you.

The fact of it is lard has less saturated fat than butter (12%) and less than half the cholesterol, yes lard is higher in calories (about 15–20%) but butter is about 15–18% water. Look anyway, I’m not advocating cooking with it everyday, I’m just saying it’s not as evil as it has been made out to be. It doesn’t deserve that scowl and revolted “You cooked that in lard!?”.

Now with that mini rant over and done with, I’ll start with another warning, this dish takes a while, about 12 hours curing, 12 hours cooking time, 12 hours pressing, and hey only about 20 minutes of final cooking, so if you’re on to it, you could cure overnight, get it in the oven in the morning, press and cool it in the evening, and cook it for dinner the next night. Start on a Friday evening, and eat on Sunday evening.


First off the cure, weigh your piece of meat, and calculate 2%, that’s how much salt you need. Mix rock or kosher salt, with some thyme and szechuan pepper. Coat the pork in the salt mix and place in a container (or ziplock bag) in the fridge overnight.


Preheat your oven to 90ºC, no that’s not a misprint. Melt enough lard to completely submerge the pork cheek in the casserole/dutch oven you’ll be using. While the lard is slowly melting, take the pork out of the fridge and rinse all the salt off it. Pat the pork dry, and place it in the casserole dish, scatter in some spices (I used star anise and szechuan pepper). When the lard is completely liquid pour it gently over the pork, making sure it is fully submerged. Cover with tinfoil, you want to make as airtight seal as is possible, you don’t want any moisture to escape. Place it in the oven and forget about it for 12 hours.


Take two baking dishes (glass or ceramic is ideal), one needs to sit inside the other, Line the bigger of the two with some baking paper, and the bottom of the smaller one with cling film. Remove the dish from the oven, and take off the tin foil, check to see that the meat is indeed cooked and tender. You can now choose to be gung-ho about the whole process and carefully lift out the pork and place it in the larger baking dish, carefully placing the the smaller one on top, weigh it down with a few cans, and wrap the whole thing firmly with some cling film. Or, let it cool a while so the fat sets slightly and the meat is less fragile. Either way, once it’s wrapped, put it in the fridge for 12 hours to press.


Get the oven on and preheating to 200–220ºC. Remove the pork from the fridge and unwrap, remove the top dish with a little caution. Portion up the pork, and keep any offcuts (tasty cooks snack). When the oven is up to temperature, get a heavy based, ovenproof frying pan on to the heat, we want it to be scorching hot. Add a few drops of oil to the pan, place the pork skin side down in the pan, pressing down gently, cook for 1 minute then transfer to the oven for 15–20 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven (don’t forget the handles hot!), and place the pork on a wooden board skin side up, to rest. While the pork rests, steam up some greens, I had some bok choy tossed in soy sauce, fish sauce and sesame seeds.


Portioned.


Out of the oven.


Melt in the mouth crisp skin.


'Test' piece with scallion and plum sauce (plum juice, spices and xanthan).

Pork Cheek

We picked up some rare breed pork cheeks at the Masterton market, I decided to slow braise the meat and serve with some polenta. The cheeks have a beautiful layer of tasty fat and I thought the slow cooking would enhance its flavour.


I first prepared the pan for braising, I lined the bottom of the pan with tin-foil so I could seal it better later. Diced carrots, sliced onion, paprika (smoked), bay leaf, garlic, coriander and fennel seeds made up a bed for the cheek.


The meat got heavily browned on both sides and seasoned with salt and pepper. I then deglazed the pan with some chicken stock. The cheek was then placed on the bed of vegetables and the stock carefully poured around it.


Sealed up nice and tight, cooked for about 3-4 hours at 130°C. When cooked, the meat was placed in a bowl and the cooking liquid strained over it and it was left to rest (Don't discard the vegetables).

While the meat was resting I got the polenta on the go (I use 8 parts liquid, 1 part instant polenta and 1 part semolina flour). A mix of milk, water and butter made up the liquid part, when the liquid starts to boil remove it from the heat and while whisking sprinkle in the dry mix. Place the pot back on a very low heat and stir constantly until a thick porridge consistency is achieved.

Retrieve the pork from the liquid and cut in to generous slices. Spoon some polenta in to a bowl and top with the vegetables, pork slices and spoon over some of the cooking liquid.