Slow Cooked Beef Cheeks in Babydoll Shiraz

Recipe by The Hungry Cook

Enjoy with a glass of Babydoll Shiraz.🍷

Slow Cooked Beef Cheeks

Ingredients:

1 tbsp olive oil
4 rashers streaky bacon
700g beef cheeks
30g salted butter
2 medium carrots
2 medium parsnips
2 celery sticks
shallots, halved lengthways
4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
2 tbsp tomato paste
150ml Babydoll Shiraz
3 sprigs fresh thyme
2 bay leaves
400g tin chopped tomatoes
300ml beef stock
Sea salt
Cracked pepper

To serve:

Mashed potatoes
2 tbsp chopped flat-leaf parsley

Method:

Heat the oven to 150ºC regular bake.

Heat the oil in a large, lidded casserole dish, over a medium heat. Add the bacon and fry for 5 minutes or until crispy, stir regularly. Remove from the dish and set aside.

Trim off any excess fat from the beef cheeks and discard, cut the cheeks into chunks approximately 4cm in width.

Fry the cheeks for a few minutes on each side until browned, season with salt and pepper. Depending on the width of your casserole dish, you might need to fry the beef in batches, if you overcrowd the pan they’ll start to boil.

Set the beef aside then reduce the heat to low.

Peel the carrots and parsnip and chop the vegetables into 1cm chunks. Peel the shallots and slice down the centre lengthways.

Add the butter to the pan, allow it to melt then add the vegetables. Cook for 10 minutes then add the garlic and fry for a further 2 minutes.

Push the vegetables to the side of the pan and add the tomato paste, if your pan is a little dry, you can add a little extra oil. Fry the tomato paste for 1-2 minutes, stirring regularly, then mix to combine with the vegetables.

Add the Babydoll Shiraz and bring to a simmer.

Add the bacon, thyme, bay leaves, tinned tomatoes and beef stock and bring to a simmer. Season with a little salt and a generous grind of pepper.

Nestle the browned beef cheeks into the casserole dish and cover with a lid.

Slow cook in the oven for 5 hours or until the meat is tender and beginning to fall apart.

Serve with mashed potatoes and fresh parsley.

This dish also works really well with pappardelle pasta or parmesan polenta.