Red Wine Braised Beef Cheeks with Silky Pommes Purée and Bordelaise

⏱ 300 min · Serves 4

Four hours of gentle braising turns humble beef cheeks into something you'd pay proper money for — spoon-tender, glossy with reduced Bordeaux, sat on a cloud of butter-heavy potato purée. The bordelaise, built from the braising liquor and finished with bone marrow, is the kind of sauce that makes people go quiet at the table.

Per serving: 1080 kcal · 72.0g protein · 48.0g carbs · 63.0g fat

Ingredients

• 4 beef cheeks (about 1.4kg total), trimmed of sinew
• 2 tbsp plain flour, seasoned
• 3 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 large onion, roughly chopped
• 2 carrots, roughly chopped
• 2 celery sticks, roughly chopped
• 1 whole garlic bulb, halved horizontally
• 2 tbsp tomato purée
• 750ml bottle full-bodied red wine (Bordeaux or Cabernet)
• 500ml good beef stock
• 3 sprigs thyme
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
• For the bordelaise: 2 large shallots, very finely diced
• 150ml red wine
• 60g bone marrow, diced (ask your butcher), or 40g cold butter
• 1 tsp cold butter to finish
• For the pommes purée: 1kg Désirée or Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and evenly chunked
• 200g unsalted butter, cold and cubed
• 150ml whole milk, warm
• Fine sea salt and white pepper
• To serve: flat-leaf parsley, flaky salt

Method

1. Heat oven to 150C/130C fan. Pat the cheeks dry, season well and dust lightly in seasoned flour.
2. Heat 2 tbsp oil in a heavy casserole over high heat and sear the cheeks hard on all sides until deeply browned, 4-5 minutes per side. Work in batches. Set aside.
3. Lower the heat, add remaining oil and the onion, carrot and celery. Cook 10 minutes until caramelising at the edges. Add the garlic halves cut-side down and the tomato purée; cook 2 minutes until it darkens.
4. Pour in the wine, scrape the base clean and boil hard for 8-10 minutes to reduce by a third. Add stock, thyme, bay and the cheeks with any resting juices — they should be just covered.
5. Bring to a bare simmer, lid on, and transfer to the oven for 3.5-4 hours, turning the cheeks once halfway. They're ready when a spoon slides through with no resistance.
6. Lift the cheeks out carefully and keep warm. Strain the liquor through a fine sieve, pressing the vegetables, then skim the fat. Reduce in a wide pan until it coats a spoon — about 400ml. Stir in the vinegar.
7. For the bordelaise, simmer the shallots with 150ml wine in a small pan until almost dry. Add 300ml of the reduced braising liquor and simmer 5 minutes. Off the heat, whisk in the bone marrow and the knob of butter until glossy. Don't boil it again.
8. Meanwhile, boil the potatoes in well-salted water until completely tender, 20-25 minutes. Drain and dry them in the pan over low heat for 2 minutes.
9. Pass the potatoes through a ricer or drum sieve back into the pan. Over low heat, beat in the cold butter a few cubes at a time, then the warm milk, until glossy and thick. Season with salt and white pepper.
10. Return the cheeks to the remaining braising liquor to glaze and warm through. Spoon a generous swirl of purée onto warm plates, sit a cheek on top, nap with bordelaise, and finish with parsley and flaky salt.