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Braised beef cheek, burghul salad, and bread and anchovy sauce

Braised beef cheek, burghul salad, and bread and anchovy sauce

"I recently celebrated my 40th birthday at Embrasse. Chef Nic Poelaert served a wonderful braised beef cheek with burghul; I would love to make the recipe at home."
Margaret Georgesen, Carlton, Vic

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Braised beef cheek, burghul salad, and bread and anchovy sauce

Serves 4
Cooking Time Prep time 20 mins, cook 4 hrs 20 mins (plus cooling)
80 ml (⅓ cup)   olive oil
1   onion, finely chopped
1   carrot, finely chopped
2   garlic cloves, finely chopped
1   thyme sprig
4   beef cheeks (about 350gm each), trimmed
1 tbsp   plain flour
350 ml   dark ale
100 ml   red wine
100 gm   tomato purée
Burghul salad
150 gm   coarse burghul
1   Lebanese cucumber, seeds removed, finely diced
30 ml   extra-virgin olive oil
2 tsp   red wine vinegar
To serve:   micro-herbs, such as baby lamb's lettuce or micro-cress
Bread and anchovy sauce
125 ml (½ cup)   chicken stock
30 gm   day-old white crusty bread, coarsely torn
3   anchovy fillets
2 tsp   olive oil


1 Preheat oven to 140C. Heat half the oil in a casserole over medium heat, add onion, carrot, garlic and thyme, stir occasionally until onion is tender (8-10 minutes), transfer vegetables and thyme to a bowl and set aside. Heat remaining oil in pan, add beef cheeks and cook, turning once, until browned (3-4 minutes). Transfer to a plate and set aside. Add flour, stir occasionally until sand-coloured (1-2 minutes), add ale, wine and tomato purée, then return vegetables, thyme and beef to casserole. Add enough water to just cover, cover with foil, pierce foil with a sharp knife and braise until beef is very tender (3½-4 hours).
2 Meanwhile, for burghul salad, cook burghul in a saucepan of boiling salted water over medium-high heat until tender (2-3 minutes), drain well and spread on a tray to cool. Combine in a bowl with cucumber, oil and vinegar, season to taste and set aside.
3 Meanwhile, for bread and anchovy sauce, stir ingredients in a small saucepan over low heat until bread is very soft (2-3 minutes), remove from heat, purée with a hand-held blender and season to taste. Serve warm with beef cheeks and burghul salad scattered with micro-herbs.

This recipe is from the July 2012 issue of Australian Gourmet Traveller.

RECIPE Nic Poelaert, Embrasse PHOTOGRAPHY Ben Dearnley STYLING Claire Delmar


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