Recipes>Ox Cheek Recipes

Cheek and Tail Pie

by Huw Gott, Richard Turner, Will Beckett from Hawksmoor at Home: Meat – Seafood – Sides – Breakfasts – Puddings – Cocktails

Serves 6

A hearty British recipe for a chilly evening. This cheek and tail pie showcases smoky belly bacon, ox cheek and oxtail with flavours from pale ale and HP sauce.

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Hawksmoor at Home

Huw Gott, Will Beckett, Richard Turner, Dan Lepard, Hawksmoor

Hawksmoor at Home: Meat – Seafood – Sides – Breakfasts – Puddings – Cocktails

Recreate Hawksmoor’s finest dishes at home

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Indulgent comfort food

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Introduction

Along with sausages, pies are the traditional repositories for animal odds and ends and as such pie-makers have long been accused of taking advantage of sealed lids and murky interiors to sneak in all sorts of unmentionables. Others used pies to showcase a particular delicacy. Hence the pie of bull’s testicles Pope Pius V found himself eating in the sixteenth century (peeled, boiled, sliced and layered with minced lambs’ kidneys and ham). British equivalents have included an udder pie (served hot or cold) and the long-lost ‘tiddago’ pie from Cornwall (made with prematurely born piglets).

We’ve been a little more conventional in our choice of filling – ox cheek, oxtail and a touch of Stilton. Hearty fare for cold winter nights.

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Ingredients

1 x 300mlbottle pale ale
500g pieceof smoked belly bacon
500gox cheek
1kgoxtail, jointed
10gseasoned flour
beef dripping for frying
1onion, chopped
2cloves garlic, crushed
150gcarrot, chopped
150gbutton mushrooms, quartered
2 lbeef stock
1 tbspHP sauce
50gStilton cheese
1marrow bone 6cm long
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the pastry:
500gself-raising flour
5gbaking powder
2gchopped thyme leaves
100gbone marrow, chilled and grated, or suet
100gbutter, chilled and grated
4egg yolks
iced milk
sea salt and black pepper

Essential kit

You will need a pie dish.

Method

Cut the ox cheek into generous chunks, add the oxtail and bacon and marinade for 2-3 hours in the beer.

Next make the pastry. In a bowl mix the flour, baking powder, thyme and freshly ground black pepper. Gently mix in the grated bone marrow or suet and butter, then add the beaten egg yolks and enough iced milk to bind. The idea is to bring the mix together into a paste. Wrap in clingfilm and rest in the fridge for at least an hour or until needed, preferably later the same day.

Drain the oxtail and ox cheek, pat dry and dust in seasoned flour. Drain and cut the bacon into lardons. In a large pan, heat the dripping and brown the meat, then brown the onions, garlic, carrots and mushrooms. Add the beer marinade, the stock and HP sauce. Simmer for 2 hours, or until the meat is tender.

Lift out the meat and vegetables and set them aside. Increase the heat and reduce the sauce to a coating consistency, skimming it as you go. Pick the meat off the oxtail and discard the bones, then return all the meat and vegetables to the sauce, stir in the Stilton, correct the seasoning and cool.

Fill the pie dish with meat mixture and place the marrow bone in the centre of the pie like a pie funnel.

Roll out the pastry about 1cm thick and cover the pie, allowing a generous overhang. The marrow bone should sit proud of the pastry.

Glaze with milk and bake for 30-40 minutes at 180°C/350°F/Gas 4, or until the pastry is well browned.

Serve with buttered greens and mashed potatoes.

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Ingredients
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