Luscious, Saucy Slow Cooked Asian Style Beef Cheeks
An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 3 hours 15 minutes. Note: sometimes I find that these slow cooked beef cuts take longer than other batches. I'm not sure why, perhaps it has to do with the beef itself. So leave yourself plenty of time.
Serves 4
- Oil for frying
- 3-4 onions, finely chopped
- 6 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
- 4 beef cheeks (around 1 kilo)
- 2 inches ginger, peeled and sliced
- 1/2 cup orange juice
- 1/2 cup light soy sauce
- 1 cup water
- 1/4 cup Shaoxing wine
- 3 pieces orange peel
- 2 star anise
- 3 dried red chillies (or to taste)
- 2 tablespoons dark soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 6 steamed pak choy split down lengthways and rice to serve
Step 1 - Heat a cast iron pot on medium heat. Saute onions in oil for around 3-4 minutes, then add garlic and ginger and fry for 1 minute. Add beef cheeks and brown on each side Add the orange juice, soy sauce, water, Shaoxing wine, orange peel, star anise and chillies. Bring to a boil, knock heat down and cover and simmer for 3 hours. You can check on it but as long as the lid is on tightly so not much water evaporates it should be fine. In the meantime you can make the greens and rice.
Step 2 - After 3 hours add the dark soy sauce and sugar and turn the heat up high and remove the lid and reduce the liquid so that it becomes glossy and sticky-it will take around 10 minutes to reduce and concentrate the liquid. Serve with greens and rice (a Japanese rice like a koshihikari is great with this).