Veal cheeks - tender as butter

Braised Veal Cheeks with root vegetables and Spaetzle

Veal cheeks - tender as butter

December 17th, 2017 | main dishes

This dish is my absolute favourite for a festive multi-course meal. It is a bit time-consuming, but you can prepare it already days before your guests arrive and freeze it. As a side dish dumplings or Spätzle and a salad of lamb’s lettuce with roasted bacon and walnuts are a perfect match. The effort is rewarded by a super tender meat and incredible aromas!

When preparing in advance, I recommend to freeze only the cheeks in the sauce, and to prepare the vegetables with almonds freshly. Vegetables can also be cut in advance and stored in the fridge. Then you have only to fry the vegetables right before serving the meal. Don’t forget to defrost the veal cheeks 😉 – best way is to defrost overnight in the fridge. Don’t boil the meat in the sauce, just warm it gently.

Braised veal cheeks tender as butter

(Serves 8 persons – 2 hours braise time + preparing time)

1 bunch of soup vegetables [carrot, celery, leek, parsley root]

2 onions

dice coarsely

8 veal cheeks (each appr. 120 g)

remove skins and tendons

salt, pepper

season

4 TS oil

sear cheeks in hot oil, take them out, roast the vegetables in the frying fat

10 g dried porcini mushrooms

40 g tomato paste

add and stir

500 ml dry red wine

pour in half of the wine, boil down in 10 minutes, add the rest of the wine, boil down again until slightly thick

1 EL brown sugar

1 garlic clove, smashed

3 ts herbs of Provence

8 juniper berries

2 cardamom pods

15 black peppercorns

add all spices

1 L beef stock (best freshly cooked)

fill up with stock, replace the cheeks, braise at 180° C for two hours, remove the meet, keep warm, pass the sauce through a sieve, salt lightly, keep the veal cheeks warm in the sauce

1 large carrot

1 onion

80 g celeriac

2 celery stalks

dice finely

2 TS almond slivers

3 TS neutral oil (such as rape oil)

roast vegetables and almonds for about 5 minutes

salt, pepper, brown sugar

season

1 bunch flat leave parsley, chopped

serve veal cheeks on top of the vegetables, garnish with parsley

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November 2nd, 2017 | main dishes

Kale with air-dried ham and warm potato waffles

When I was a child I did not like kale. I qualified this statement when I travelled to Shanghai and tasted sea cucumbers. Today I eat kale, but I still don’t like our traditional German way to prepare kale. Too fat, too ugly, too heavy. And then this sausage called „Pinkel“?!? Last autumn I gave kale a second chance. I must admit it’s a very tasty vegetable. It’s only a matter of how to prepare it. Try this.

November 10th, 2017 | on the road

Happy winners! A hot dinner event in Hamburg!

Normally I never win anything. I thought. But indeed, some weeks ago I had really won two tickets for the base camp of Hamburg’s „Kitchen Guerillas“ in a weekly newspaper called „die ZEIT“. Unbeleavable! Since my Captain was at sea, my son benefitted from spending that evening together with me. The motto was „Thrill your food!“. The „mobile cooking unit capturing kitchens from Hamburg to Istanbul“ showed what happens when hot sauces meet German traditional dishes. Some 60 winners from all over Germany met and the atmospere was relaxed. Great gain, keeping in mind that our Captain is the only one in our family who loves really (!) hot food…