I’m not into alcohol and I’ve never cooked with alcohol before, but when I saw the pictures accompanying the slow braised beef cheeks recipe from the Good Food website I couldn’t resist trying it. I didn’t follow all of the recipe though, I just adapted it and did it my way.

The result was very good and I’m really happy with it. The meat melted in my mouth and the sauce tasted so good. The original recipe is here

Ingredients

• 4 tbsp olive oil

• 1.5kg beef cheeks, trimmed

• 200g speck, thickly sliced

• 2 leeks, trimmed and chopped

• 4 carrots, peeled and sliced

• 4 celery stalks, sliced

• 4 garlic cloves, peeled

• 500ml red wine

• 400ml chicken stock or water

• 2 tbsp tomato paste

• 4 anchovy fillets

• 2 bay leaves

• 4 thyme sprigs

• 2 rosemary sprigs

• 1 tsp sea salt

• ½ tsp cracked black pepper

• Extra herbs for serving

Method

1. Heat the oven to 150 degrees. Heat two tablespoons of oil in a heavy pan and sear the beef cheeks in batches over medium heat on all sides, until you get a nice crust.

2. Remove the beef, add remaining olive oil and cook the speck, leeks, carrots, celery and garlic, tossing well for 5 minutes. Add the red wine and simmer for 5 minutes, then add the stock, tomato paste, anchovies, bay leaves, thyme, rosemary, sea salt and pepper.

3. Return the beef cheeks to the pan and simmer for 5 minutes. Tightly cover, transfer to the oven, and cook for 4½ hours, or until tender.

Highlights

•  I used gravy beef instead of beef cheek as it easier to find, but one day I will try this recipe using beef cheeks.
• No speck and no anchovy fillets were used in my version.

I will definitely cook this again.