Recommendations · Wine and food

Braised beef cheeks with Prazo de Roriz Douro

Beef cheeks simmered for three hours in red wine, carrot and bay leaf until they fall apart with a spoon. A Douro wine made from port grapes has the firmness that such a long braise demands.

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From the shelf

The bottle

Prazo de Roriz Douro comes from the Douro in Portugal and is made from touriga franca, touriga nacional, tinta roriz and a share of mixed native grapes. The wine is 14.5 percent by volume and the bottle holds 75 centilitres. These are the same grapes from which port is made in this region, here fermented into a dry red wine.

Prazo de Roriz Douro

The combination

Why this works together

Beef cheek is muscle tissue full of connective tissue. After three hours of gentle braising, that collagen has turned into gelatine, and the gelatine gives the sauce a thick, sticky texture that clings to the palate. That calls for firm tannin: it binds to the protein and strips that layer away. Douro grapes naturally deliver plenty of tannin and dark fruit, and at 14.5% vol. the wine also has the weight not to seem thin next to a reduced braising sauce. The acidity in the glass does the same work as the splash of vinegar you stir in at the end.

At the table

The dish

Before 4 people
Ready in 3 hours and 30 minutes
Type main course

What you need

1.2 kilo beef cheeks
2 onions
3 winter carrots
2 celery sticks
4 cloves of garlic
500 millilitres of red wine
500 millilitres beef stock
2 tablespoons tomato purée
3 tablespoons of olive oil
3 bay leaves
4 sprigs of thyme
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons of flour
salt and freshly ground black pepper

How to make it

Cut the coarse membrane off the cheeks and pat them dry. Sprinkle them with salt and pepper and dredge them in the flour.
Heat the olive oil in a heavy-based casserole and brown the cheeks in batches for six minutes until dark brown all over. Take your time over this step; that brown crust is the basis of the whole sauce.
Cut the onion, carrot and celery into coarse pieces and the garlic into slices. Sweat them soft in the same fat for ten minutes.
Stir in the tomato purée and let it fry along for two minutes until it turns from red to brick-coloured.
Deglaze with the red wine, scrape the bottom clean and let the wine boil for five minutes.
Put the meat back, add the stock, the bay leaf and the thyme and make sure the meat is just submerged.
Bring everything to the boil, turn the heat as low as possible and leave the pan covered for three hours. It should barely simmer; boiling harder only dries the meat out.
Take the meat out, strain the sauce and, if necessary, reduce it until it coats a spoon. Stir in the vinegar, season to taste and put the meat back. Serve with mashed potatoes or bread.

In the glass

Serving

Serve the wine at 17 degrees in a roomy red wine glass. Open the bottle an hour beforehand or pour it into a decanter; young Douro wine needs air to let its tannin settle.

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