3

Kambrook's One Pot Wonder Collections competition on facebook is receiving so many wonderful entries, so selecting a winner was extremely difficult. Last month we selected our first winner. 

Pia Holscher from Queensland won. Congratulations.

"This delectable recipe means a great deal to me because my late father would always crack a charming smile when I served it and savour every last spoonful. We had great memories in the kitchen. My dad loved simple pleasures like that."

As part of Pia's entry, she also submitted her recipe for "Beef Cheeks Braised in White Wine".

Gina, from our Kambrook team, tried the recipe using our pressure cooker. Here is her experience, and we're also sharing Pia's delicious recipe.

Now, as my other half and most of my friends can attest, I am not much of a cook.  In fact, I am no cook at all. Cooking is a necessity, not a joy in my life, although I love good food. 

The one thing I do love and has made cooking a little less of a toil for me is my pressure cooker. Making stews, curries, roasts, rice - whatever, I have put my pressure cooker to good use this winter.  So when asked to try a pressure cooker recipe sent in from a recent competition, I put my hand up because how difficult could it be using my fave appliance?  

The recipe called for beef cheeks - not your usual cut of meat. The only time I have ever eaten beef cheeks was in a lovely Darlinghurst French restaurant friends and I used to frequent, and it was always tender and delicious. So feeling confident, I went up to my local butcher who looked at me aghast when I asked if they had beef cheeks to sell? He told me it would have to be a 'special order’ ordered in and he was adamant that it was the worst cut of meat - all gristle and fat - and why would I ever want to make them? I got less of a negative reaction at my second neighbourhood butcher - they didn't give me the commentary on my choice of meat, just told me that it wasn't a cut they carry.

Now I was a bit worried. Obviously getting the kilo of beef cheeks required for the recipe was not going to be as easy as I had assumed. One butcher even suggested I substitute gravy beef, as it would give me a similar result but was a better cut of meat, so I bought a kilo just in case.

And then I was off to Aldi to do my grocery shopping and low and behold, guess what was nicely packaged on display in their meat department? Beef cheeks. Never saw them there before (admittedly, never looked either) but was extremely happy that luck was indeed on my side. So with my kilo of beef cheeks and all the other ingredients prepared and at the ready, I loaded everything into my pressure cooker and let it do what it does best.

I pretty much stayed true to the recipe and, with the gristle and fat comments still flitting through my thoughts, I put the cooker on for the full 45 minutes. Once the timer finished, I added a bit of corn flour to slightly thicken the sauce and reduced using the sauté setting on my cooker for about 5 minutes. Served with mashed potatoes and a fresh baked loaf of sour dough bread, overall, I found this to be a really nice winter meal. And at 45 minutes in the pressure cooker, the meat was so tender it was easy to cut with just a butter knife. Gristle and fat? Not an issue at all. I'll be making this dish again. Thanks Pia.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 tsp butter
• 1kg beef cheeks
• 1 onion, sliced
• 1 carrot, diced
• 1 celery stick, diced
• 2 garlic cloves, diced
• 6 dried porcini mushrooms, sliced
• Handful of brown mushrooms, sliced
• 2 tbs tomato paste
• 400g can of crushed tomato
• 2 cups white wine
• 2 sprigs of thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 tsp smoked paprika
• 1 tbs corn flour

ZESTY GREMOLATA

• Bunch fresh continental parsley, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, diced
• Lemon rind and juice of 1/2 a lemon

Serve with mashed potatoes

DIRECTIONS

1. Melt butter in a pan and seal the beef cheeks.
2. Once the meat is nice and golden, place in the pressure cooker.
3. Sweat off onion, carrot, celery and garlic.
4. Fry porcini mushrooms with stalks removed. Slice a handful of brown mushrooms and add to the pan. Add tomato paste and can of crushed tomato.
5. Add white wine, thyme and bay leaf, then add the liquid mix to the pressure cooker. Sprinkle two teaspoons of smoked paprika.
6. Place the lid on and cook for 30 to 45 minutes.
7. After the cooking time, release pressure and remove lid. If the sauce is too runny, reduce for 10 minutes or add corn flour mixed with water to thicken.
8. Prepare the gremolata by chopping up the continental parsley, garlic, lemon rind and lemon juice. Stire in at the end of cooking.
9. Serve with creamy mashed potatoes

We'll be selecting another winner for the month of July and sharing their recipe. To enter our competition, simply click here.