Chef's Recipes

Braised beef cheek, burghul salad, and bread and anchovy sauce

Australian Gourmet Traveller recipe for Braised beef cheek, burghul salad, and bread and anchovy sauce

By Nic Poelaert
  • 20 mins preparation
  • 4 hrs 20 mins cooking plus cooling
  • Serves 4
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Braised beef cheek, burghul salad, and bread and anchovy sauce
"I recently celebrated my 40th birthday at Embrasse. Chef Nic Poelaert served a wonderful braised beef cheek with burghul; I would love to make the recipe at home."
Margaret Georgesen, Carlton, Vic
To request a recipe, write to Fare Exchange, , GPO Box 4088, Sydney, NSW 2001, or email us. All requests should include the restaurant's name and address or business card, as well as your name and address.

Ingredients

  • 80 ml olive oil (⅓ cup)
  • 1 onion, finely chopped
  • 1 carrot, finely chopped
  • 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
  • 1 thyme sprig
  • 4 beef cheeks (about 350gm each), trimmed
  • 1 tbsp plain flour
  • 350 ml dark ale
  • 100 ml red wine
  • 100 gm tomato purée
Burghul salad
  • 150 gm coarse burghul
  • 1 Lebanese cucumber, seeds removed, finely diced
  • 30 ml extra-virgin olive oil
  • 2 tsp red wine vinegar
  • To serve: micro-herbs, such as baby lamb's lettuce or micro-cress
Bread and anchovy sauce
  • 125 ml chicken stock (½ cup)
  • 30 gm day-old white crusty bread, coarsely torn
  • 3 anchovy fillets
  • 2 tsp olive oil

Method

Main
  • 1
    Preheat oven to 140C. Heat half the oil in a casserole over medium heat, add onion, carrot, garlic and thyme, stir occasionally until onion is tender (8-10 minutes), transfer vegetables and thyme to a bowl and set aside. Heat remaining oil in pan, add beef cheeks and cook, turning once, until browned (3-4 minutes). Transfer to a plate and set aside. Add flour, stir occasionally until sand-coloured (1-2 minutes), add ale, wine and tomato purée, then return vegetables, thyme and beef to casserole. Add enough water to just cover, cover with foil, pierce foil with a sharp knife and braise until beef is very tender (3½-4 hours).
  • 2
    Meanwhile, for burghul salad, cook burghul in a saucepan of boiling salted water over medium-high heat until tender (2-3 minutes), drain well and spread on a tray to cool. Combine in a bowl with cucumber, oil and vinegar, season to taste and set aside.
  • 3
    Meanwhile, for bread and anchovy sauce, stir ingredients in a small saucepan over low heat until bread is very soft (2-3 minutes), remove from heat, purée with a hand-held blender and season to taste. Serve warm with beef cheeks and burghul salad scattered with micro-herbs.

Notes

This recipe is from the July 2012 issue of .

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