Veal cheeks is a Bavarian classic for this time of year.
Veal cheeks SV 58, 4 hrs. Quick seared in clarified butter. Placed to the beef stock I made a day ahead, (part of it [clarified] served as a great consommé on the menu as strter) added some roasted vegetables (Carrot/ Parsnip, Sweet Pepper, S/P Rosemary) put it all on a simmer for 1 hr, added 100 ml red Bordeaux, reduce it further, added 25 g of dark roux *
Fine-tuned it with butter and a splash of port wine. Texture beautifully silky.
Spaetzle, dough spiced with S/P and mace, grilled Brussels sprouts with breadcrumbs on top and some shitake mushrooms and red sweet chill slices, seared in clarified butter. Ready to serve with a 2016 Bordeaux. The cheeks were butter soft; it was a pleasure to lead the knife through them.
Fun to make and a nice entrance for the days to come. Of course, it’s rich so a 12-year Scotch appeared to be the right thing in following the course to settle it nicely, would have had one anyways no thought spend on the richness. The mocha with it was obligatory.
Since there is not much room to move atm. I spend about 3-4 hr on the farmers marked daily compare to the usual 1 hr., I will sink in cooking for the next 10 days even deeper as usually around Christmas and it shall be fun.
* If you want to make a dark Roux and choose butter as the main ingredient, I recommend using clarified Butter over plain butter. To my findings the whey, what accounts to 15% of the butter volume, leaves burned particles in the finished roux which can be result in a slightly bitter taste.
In any case, take the roux from the heat when it changes its color to dark, by the high temperature used, it will continue to darken if no Ice bath is at hand.
I also worked on a different way to make clarified butter compared to the traditional way of boiling the butter until the water of the whey evaporates and the proteins can be skimmed off or hold back by a cheesecloth.
Since butter melts at 25° C I simply warmed 250 g Butter to 30° C - 40° C, the butter fat will separate from the whey and once the separation is completed it is carefully poured in a container, leaving the whey and may be 10 g of butter fat behind. Works for me like a charm. If you want to receive a nutty butter taste of course boiling the butter cannot be passed around.
