Having never cooked Ox Cheeks before, I was quite excited to try. This is a super simple recipe and requires a long slow cook in the oven. It produces butter soft beef and a ridiculously rich glaze. Serve with some creamy mash and seasonal veg. 1 Cheek will feed 2 hungry adults.

Ingredients

2 Ox Cheeks – seasoned salt & pepper

1 bottle red wine (I used a rich Malbec)

2 Carrots – diced

2 sticks celery – diced

1 white onion – diced

Small bunch thyme

4 cloves of garlic – roughly chopped

500 ml beef stock

Knob of butter

lemon

Directions

1. Pour wine into a pan and reduce it by half.

2. In a large oven proof casserole pan, sear Ox Cheeks until nicely browned on all sides. Remove and set aside.

3. Add all veg, garlic and thyme to pan and sautée for a few minutes to soften.

4. Our reduced wine in to veg and scrape all bits from bottom of pan. Add stock and bring to a boil. Return Ox Cheeks to pan. Cover and pop in low oven, 140c for 6 hrs. I turn the cheeks half way through.

5. Careful remove Ox Cheeks and set aside, covered. Strain your sauce into a pan and reduce down to a thick glaze. I added a little knob of butter and a squeeze of lemon juice.

5. Carefully slice Ox Cheeks and serve with mash and glaze drizzled over.