Beef Barbacoa Recipe
Adapted from St Lucia Newcastle by Lorraine Elliott
Recipe Overview
Preparation time: 10 minutes plus 30 minutes soaking time
Cooking time: 6 hours
Serves: 4
Ingredients Needed
For Chillies
- 8 guajillo chillies
- 4 ancho chillies
- 4 cups boiling water
For Sauce
- 200g/7oz onion (1 large)
- 50g/1.7oz garlic cloves, peeled weight
- 30g/1oz achiote paste
- 30g/1oz ground cumin
- 15g/0.5oz mountain or black pepper
- 10g/0.3oz ground cloves
- 10g/0.3oz dried oregano (Mexican if you can find it)
- 4 cups beef or chicken stock
- 300ml/10.6fl oz apple cider vinegar
- 20ml/0.7fl oz fish sauce
- 1 tablespoon salt (or to taste)
For Dish
- 4x 250g/8.8oz beef cheeks
- 12 bay leaves
- 4 tablespoons honey
Step-By-Step Instructions
Step 1 PREP- Soak the guajillo chillies (8 guajillo chillies) and ancho chillies (4 ancho chillies) in boiling water (4 cups boiling water) from a recently boiled kettle. Cover and allow to soften for 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 150C/300F conventional or 130C/260F fan forced.
Step 2 BLEND - Reserving the soaking liquid, remove the stems from the chillies and then add the softened chillies to a food processor along with the soaking water (4 cups boiling water), onion (200g/7oz onion), garlic cloves (50g/1.7oz garlic cloves), achiote paste (30g/1oz achiote paste), ground cumin (30g/1oz ground cumin), pepper (15g/0.5oz mountain or black pepper), ground cloves (10g/0.3oz ground cloves), oregano (10g/0.3oz dried oregano), stock (4 cups beef or chicken stock), apple cider vinegar (300ml/10.6fl oz apple cider vinegar), fish sauce (20ml/0.7fl oz fish sauce) and salt (1 tablespoon salt). Blend until you get a smooth sauce.
Step 3 BAKE - Place the beef cheeks (4x 250g/8.8oz beef cheeks) in a large, deep baking dish and cover with the sauce and bay leaves (12 bay leaves). Cover with foil and bake for 5 hours. Remove the foil and bake for another 1 hour until very tender.
Step 4 FINISH - Gently remove the beef cheeks from the liquid (they will be very soft). Drizzle honey (4 tablespoons honey) over the top of the beef cheeks and grill to caramelise. Serve on top of mashed potato.
Personal Note
I'm making this for Mr NQN for Father's Day as he is a great dad to Teddy and Milo. Teddy has been having some issues lately. When we adopted him, they told us that he would have dental problems his whole life.
About a year ago we noticed that Teddy had a whole row of bottom teeth that were loose. They could be moved back and forth easily because his underbite exposed the saliva to the air and turned the teeth brown.
The first time he got those bottom teeth out, he ran out happily. It seemed as though his teeth were painful or bothering him and he was the happiest dog ever.
But this time it was different. He had another five teeth out. The vet said that they tried to keep as many teeth in him as possible because he's still young at seven years of age. They gave us his teeth in a little jar with a warning that he might have to come back for more teeth in the future.
Poor Teddy was quiet and subdued and we wrapped him up snugly in a blanket and let him rest. He was slowly better within a couple of days but Mr NQN cancelled everything so that we could be home with Teddy just in case!
So tell me Dear Reader, would you cancel your plans to look after your pet? Do you ever ask restaurants for recipes?