Beef Cheek Daube & Honey Vinegar Pie

Main: Beef Cheek Daube with Fennel and Rum
From June 2020 Delicious Magazine (The Chef & The Butcher)

Dessert: Honey Vinegar Pie with Spiced Whipped Cream
From June 2020 Delicious Magazine (Larissa Takchi)

Beef Cheek:

“This meat comes from the cow’s cheek muscles and is one of the cheapest but tastiest cuts of beef. Well-loved for it’s meltingly tender texture, the cheek is best suited to slow cooking, taking in the rich flavours of wine and spices, and is pure heaven served with mashed potato”

Hi everyone!

Just loving the opportunity to cook these beautiful slow and flavoursome casseroles with the arrival of the colder weather. Let me start then by saying that I have not had success with beef cheeks in the past, I prefer chuck steak, however I wanted to try again. And so, the Beef Cheek Daube. The flavour is absolutely beautiful and much like beef bourguignon only much, much more complicated, messy and time consuming.

This recipe needs to be started a day ahead for marinating purposes.

It is an expensive dish to prepare using 6 cups of red wine (and we want decent quality) as well as 3/4 of a cup of dark rum. So you might like to weigh this up before embarking on it for your family. I found it fiddly because you marinate the vegetables along with the meat and then have to pick the meat out to brown it. (Who knows maybe I was doing it wrong but I read the recipe several times). I adore the recipes in Delicious Magazine but I do feel that there is a certain amount of assumed knowledge expected of the cook and I like everything spelt out – are you the same? Anyway, I also picked out the cinnamon quills and the bay leaves before browning the meat. You may be saying “well dah!” but I just feel that should have been mentioned. I had great success with the beef cheeks this time as they were mouthwateringly tender. The overall flavour with the fennel, alcohol and citrus rinds was very interesting. Served on mash it was a winner albeit $$$. 9/10

Dessert on the other hand was easy. It’s an American pie which uses vinegar rather than lemon. The pie came to life in the 19th century when Americans had to make do with what they had and fruit was hard to come by. Vinegar on the other hand was available all year round and so the vinegar pie was born. This in itself was intriguing so just had to give it a go. I used a 24cm pan although it called for a 22cm one but who can store every different size pan. Not me that’s for sure. So store bought short crust pastry makes the preparation of the pie crust very straight forward. Got a feeling though that they didn’t have sheets of frozen pastry back in the early 19th century. The filling is custardy and you could prep this the day before needed and just top with the spiced cream before serving. Combining sour cream, cream, brown sugar and cinnamon really makes for a beautiful topping that could be used with so many other desserts, even just on the side of fresh fruit. 8/10. Finished off the next day by the MAV of course.

Final analysis from me? The point of this blog is to give you my honest opinion and please keep in mind it is just my opinion. I would just go for a beef bourguignon and not bother with this daube but definitely give the pie a go.

Until next week.

From my table to yours with love x

Beef Cheek Daube with Fennel and Rum

Start this recipe the day before

1 large onion (chopped)
1 carrot (chopped)
1 fennel bulb (chopped)
2 cinnamon quills
3 garlic cloves (sliced)
3 bay leaves
¾ c dark rum
6 c red wine
zest of one lemon and one orange (peeled into strips)
1.5 kg beef cheeks (cut into 3cm pieces)
¼ c olive oil
80 g unsalted butter
8 small eschalots (peeled left whole)
250 g bacon (cut into 3cm batons)
300 g small button mushrooms
2½ tbs tomato paste
¼ c plain flour
3 c good-quality beef stock
½ bunch tarragon (finely chopped)
mash to serve

Combine onion, carrot, fennel, cinnamon, garlic, bay leaves, run, wine, citrus zest and beef in a bowel, Cover and marinate in the fridge for at least 4 hours – ideally overnight.
Preheat oven to 160°c. Strain beef mixture, reserving marinade, beef and vegetable mixture separately. Bring marinade to the boil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Simmer for 5-6 minutes, skimming impurities from the surface. Strain through a fine sieve.
Heat half oil and half butter in a large heavy-based flameproof casserole over high heat. In batches, sear beef, stirring and tossing frequently, for 5-6 minutes until browned, set aside. Add remaining oil and butter with eschalots, bacon and mushrooms and cook, stirring frequently, for 5-6 mins until vegetables have softened. Add reserved vegetables and cook, stirring for 4-5 mins until veg begins to soften.
Add tomato paste and stir for 1 minute, then stir in flour.
Return meat to the pan with marinade and stock, scraping bottom of pan with wooden spoon. Bring to the boil, cover and braise in oven for 2 to 2½ hours or until meat is tender.
Skim fat from surface of beef pan. Strain, returning liquid to pan and set aside beef and vegetables in a bowl. Return pan to medium-high heat for 3-4 minutes to reduce and thicken sauce. Return beef to the sauce with tarragon and return to a simmer.
Serve with mashed potato.

Honey Vinegar Pie with Spiced Whipped Cream

1 sheet frozen sweet shortcrust pastry (defrosted)
1 tsp vanilla paste or ½ tsp of vanilla essence
½ c thickened cream
110 g unsalted butter
¾ c caster sugar
2 tbsp plain flour
¼ tsp sea salt
3 eggs (lightly beaten)
2 tsp apple cider vinegar
¼ c runny honey

Spiced Whipped Cream

200 ml thickened cream
250 g sour cream
¼ c brown sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon

The Pie

Preheat oven to 160°c fan-forced. Grease a 22cm fluted loose-based tart pan and line with pastry, allowing the pastry to overhang about 1cm and fold over slightly. Prick the base with a fork, line with baking paper and add baking weights to weight he paper down.
Blind bake for 15-20 minutes until the side starts to go light golden. Remove baking weights and paper and return to the oven for 10 minutes or until the pastry is golden and dry to touch.
To make the filling mix together the vanilla and cream in a heatproof bowl set over a pot of boiling water. Turn the heat down and allow to stand for 20 minutes.
Remove the vanilla mixture from the heat and set aside. In a separate heatproof bowl, add the butter and place over a pot of boiling water to melt. Set aside and allow to cool for 5 minutes.
In a large separate bowl, whisk together the sugar, flour and sea salt. Stir in the melted cooled butter until combined. Whisking rapidly, slowly pour in the eggs followed by the vanilla cream. Add the vinegar and honey and pour the mixture into the baked pie shell, whisking as you pour.
Bake for 35-40 minutes, rotating the pan twice, until the pie is golden brown on top, slightly puffed with a slight wobble in the centre. Allow to cool in the fridge for 1 hour or 3 hours at room temperature.

Spiced Whipped Cream

Place all the ingredients in a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment and whisk until stiff peaks. Refrigerate until ready to serve.