Two recipes from A Taste of Slow demonstrations at Abbotsford Convent, Melbourne

September 10, 2006

Beef cheeks are just that - cheeks from the head of the animal ("and not the buttocks" the MC explained). You may need to talk to your butcher about obtaining them. Here they are served in a rich port sauce which had a magnificent aroma.

Graham Green about to cook the trimmed beef cheeks (in the mirror above)

Beef Cheeks
Graham Green, Green Herring Restaurant, ACT

4x250-300g beef cheeks
plain flour to coat cheeks
butter
1 red onion
2 cups port
1 cup dry red wine
a few sprigs of thyme
2 dessertspoons of lime and chilli sambal (Green makes his own mix)
2 cloves garlic (optional)
1.5 litres beef stock (approx)

Allow one beef cheek per person. Clean and trim of any excess skin or fat.

Dust the cheeks lightly with flour and shake off the excess. Melt a little butter in a frying pan. When the pan is hot, sear the cheeks. If cooking at home do this step outside on a hot BBQ plate as the smoke and spitting makes a mess in the kitchen.

Place the cheeks straight in a casserole dish. Sear the onions in the hot pan and scatter on top of the cheeks.

Add the wine, port, thyme, sambal and optional garlic with enough beef stock to come at least halfway up the casserole dish.

Cover the casserole with a lid or foil and place in a moderate oven (200C). Cook for 2-2 1/2 hours. When the cheeks are ready they should feel soft but should not spring back when pushed with the finger.

Gently lift the cheeks from the casserole dish into a large frying pan, Carefully pour all the liquid from the casserole into the pan. If the liquid level is low when the casserole comes from the oven, take the cheeks out and add more stock to the casserole dish. Deglaze the pan juices into the large frying pan. Bring to the boi then turn the heat down to a slow simmer. Reduce the liquid down to sauce consistency. Once this is achieved, the dish is ready to serve.

Beef cheeks can be served with:

• Handmade thick ribbon pasta
• A mash of potato, sweet potato or parsnip
• Stewed green beans
• Salad of radicchio, onion and pear

Fergus Henderson of London's St John restaurant and Ian Curley from The Point in Albert Park, Melbourne demonstrated how to roast a suckling pig. The piglet serves around 14 people at a cost of roughly $10 a head. I tasted this dish as part of a dinner menu Henderson prepared two days earlier. The stuffing was very tasty. The dish was served with plain watercress.

Piglets before and after a tanning session in a slow oven

Suckling Pig
(Fergus Henderson, St John Restaurant, London)

Yesterday’s white bread – cut into walnut size chunks
Red onions peeled and chopped
Red wine
Duck fat
Kidney from piglet, cut into small chunks
Sage, thinly slices
Salt and pepper

Sweat off red onion in duck fat until thoroughly soft and gving. Add 1/2 bottle of red wine and reduce. As the wine is now just part of the onion lava, now still on the heat add kidneys and stire through. Add the bread – what you are looking for is the bread to be held in your onion glop but not end uo with the bread gloppy. You also want the bread to absorb the piggy juices as we roast.

Season with salt and pepper, Add the handful of chopped sage. This with bring a warmth to the stuffing.

Fill the cavity of the pig with the stuffing. Don’t overdo it as it will subsequently swell.

Sew the pig up so that it looks something like you keep your pyjamas in (!) Roll it right over and rub it with some oil like you would a lover’s back. Season the skin with salt. With tinfoil cover the ears, snout and tail to protect from unattractive singe marks.

Place in a gentle medium oven for four hours (keepingan eye on it of course). You want it to be totally giving when cooked, with time and the fact the pig has youth on its side that should not be a problem.

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