Movida’s Beef Cheeks in Pedro Ximenez

Until things all turned comprehensively to custard earlier this year my son Cohen was working at an extremely cool and authentic Spanish restaurant in Melbourne, Movida. So last weekend we had one of their famous signature dishes, beef cheeks braised in sweet Pedro Ximenez sherry, which came from the restaurant's original cookbook. I have fiddled with it very slightly. They were both ridiculously easy to cook and outstandingly good - dark and moist and rich and mysterious... I'd highly recommend them if you have a hankering for something exotic, meaty and Spanish.

• 1.5 kg Beef Cheeks

• 125 ml (½ cup) olive oil

• 3 carrots, roughly chopped

• 10 cloves garlic, peeled

• 1 brown onion, sliced

• 500 ml (2 cups) Pedro Ximenez sherry

• 500 ml (2 cups) red wine

• 3 bay leaves

• 3 Tbs thyme leaves

• 1 tsp salt 

  NOTE: One of our guests had issues with alliums (onions, garlic, etc) so I seriously reduced the amount of garlic and used a very small onion. Although I usually reckon more is better with both those ingredients it really didn't seem to detract in any way whatsoever.

  ANOTHER NOTE: Since this is a long-cooked dish I would suggest cooking it in advance, preferably the day before so the flavours can really dig in, and simply reheating it. That's what I did and what this recipe is geared towards.
  

1. Trim the beef cheeks to neaten them up and remove any sinew and silver skin. Season well. Heat oven to 140º / 120º for fan-forced.

2. Heat half the olive oil in a large heavy-based, oven-proof casserole dish over high heat. Brown the beef cheeks for about 2 minutes on each side then remove from the pan. Add the remaining olive oil, then sauté the carrot, garlic and onion and over high heat for 10-15 minutes, until well browned. Stir in the sherry, wine, bay leaves, thyme, sea salt and 500 ml (17 fl oz/2 cups) water.

   

   

   
   

    

    

    

    

    

   NOTE: Rather than picking thyme leaves, which is a pain, I just wrap a few thyme sprigs in the bay leaves. A bouquet garni without the parsley. Then you can easily lift them out.
   

   

3. Put the beef cheeks back into the dish with everything else, cover and cook in the oven for 4-6 hours, or until the cheeks are beginning to fall apart. Check after 3 hours that the liquid is good and nothing weird has happened (you can never be too sure!). Who knows - your oven may be on the hot side and they may be ready...
   

4. When they are well tender take them out of the oven and cool the cheeks in the liquid. Remove any fat that might have settled. Then remove the cheeks and reduce the liquid till thick and glaze-like. Strain this sauce through a fine sieve onto the cheeks; gently reheat the cheeks in the sauce when you want them. I reheated them in a low oven in the serving dish. 
   

   

We served them with potatoes and a mesclun salad (with edible flowers - I'm a sucker for stuff like that!). And a Spanish 2013 Turret Fields La Bascula Monastrell & Syrah. From Finer Wines in Katikati of course...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NOTE: You will notice that aside from the red wine this contains 500ml of Pedro Ximenez which is expensive and not exactly cooking sherry. I would suggest buying the cheapest PX and there's only one vaguely cheap PX which is from Real Tesoro. It can be ordered on-line through Glengarry, but still makes this a bit of a special occasion dish.

ANOTHER NOTE: I forgot to say, I reckon this would serve six hungry people with no problem. I'm taking the leftovers to Cohen so he can judge how similar it is to the "real thing"!