Braised Ox Cheeks

Name: Braised Ox Cheeks
Yield: Serves 4
Ingredients: sea salt and freshly ground black pepper; 2 tablespoons plain flour; 200 ml/7 fl oz stout or London porter; 1 leek, halved and sliced; 2 celery stalks, cut into chunky matchstick lengths; 1 litre/1¾ pints chicken stock; 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce; mashed potatoes, to serve; 2 carrots, roughly chopped; 1 tablespoon vegetable oil; 2 ox cheeks, about 300–400 g/10½–14 oz each (ask your butcher to remove the skin and fat)

Preparation info

Serves
4

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

Let's Eat

By Tom Parker Bowles

Published 2013

About

Like oxtail, ox cheek was once a cheap, dowdy, resolutely unglamorous cut, but has ascended to the A-list. And I can see why. Cooked slowly, these cheeks, with all that hard-working connective fibre, break down into the most luscious strands. They have a sublime richness and should be eaten with a spoon, from a bowl.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons plain flour
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 ox cheeks, about

Main course
Starter

Method

Season the flour. Chop each ox cheek into 4–6 pieces, then dust them with the seasoned flour. Heat the oil in a frying pan over a high heat and brown the meat in batches. Transfer the meat to a large saucepan or flameproof casserole. Deglaze the frying pan with a splash of the beer and pour it over the meat.

Add the celery, leek and carrots to the casserole and cover with the stock. Pou