Thai Beef Cheeks in the Slow Cooker

And now for the recipe that keeps overflowing my slow cooker, but is so incredibly tasty that I continue to make it. It is so tasty that I am willing to spend $180 (in gift cards – but it’s still money!) to buy a slow cooker that will enable me to eat this more often.

I found this recipe on a Melbourne food blog, The Hungry Lawyer. The initial prep is a bit more complicated than I normally use for slow cookers – there’s a lot of chopping and measuring, and I always forget how much extra work it is, and allocate myself 10 minutes when I actually need closer to 20 or 30.

It’s supposed to serve 6, but I find it actually serves 4 (even if I buy an extra beef cheek), maybe because James and I are pigs and take giant serves of beef. I could stretch it out to 6 meals, but that would mean less delicious meat. Easier just to buy a bigger slow cooker so I can make more cheeks at a time (Me justifying a new slow cooker: “yes, but when you consider it in terms of cheeks per minute …”)

To cut down on prep get the butcher to trim the cheeks for you. The first time I made these I did it myself – first of all, it was gross because cheeks are pretty ugly, and second of all, it took forever. Yes, I do need to sharpen my knives. But it’s still easier to get the butcher to do it.

Even after trimming, it’s not a super lean cut of meat. If you’ve ever had those Asian stews where the meat melts in your mouth because they’ve used a nice fatty cut of meat, that’s what these cheeks feel like. Some people don’t like that mouthfeel, but stewy meat reminds me of mumfood, which I always find comforting. The beef in the picture is a particularly fatty piece – most of the cheeks were leaner than that.

Also the sauce this makes it incredible. Like James will lift the plate to his lips and slurp it down.

Ingredients

• 5 or 6 beef cheeks, trimmed
• 1/2 cup plain flour, seasoned with salt and pepper
• 2 tablespoons peanut oil
• 2 large brown onions, thinly sliced
• 4 cm piece galancal, sliced into thin matchsticks
• 4 cm piece ginger, sliced into thin matchsticks (Note: If you cannot source galangal, just double the amount of ginger used)
• 2 lemongrass stems (pale part only), thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup tamarind paste (Note: I used something called tamarind puree, hoping it was the same thing, and it seemed to work fine)
• 2 or 3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
• small handful of coriander stems (roots and all), thouroughly washed to remove all dirt and grit and finely chopped
• 3 hot chillies, thinly sliced
• 3 or 4 kaffir lime leaves, crush in your hands before adding to the dish to release the lime oils
• 2 cups beef or chicken stock
• 1/2 cup fish sauce
• 3 cups water (Note: I add 1.5-2 cups because of my small slow cooker and it’s fine)

Method

1. Place the sliced onions, lemongrass, chilli, galangal, ginger, garlic, coriander stems and crushed kaffir lime leaves in the bottom of a slow cooker.
2. Slice each beef cheek into two even sized pieces. Coat each piece of meat in the seasoned flour.
3. Heat the oil in a heavy based pan over medium-high heat. In batches, brown the beef for 2 or 3 minutes on each side until crispy and golden brown. Make sure that your beef is well browned to ensure that it does not look grey and unappetising after slow cooking.
4. Arrange the browned beef cheeks on top of the sliced vegetables.
5. Add tamarind paste, brown sugar, fish sauce and water to the slow cooker.
6. Cook on the slow cooker’s ‘Low Setting’ for 8 hours. I personally like to start the cooking on ‘High’ for an hour or two, then reduce the heat to ‘Low’. (Note: If you don’t have a slow cooker, you could cook this dish in a casserole dish in the oven on 170 degrees for 3 hours and 30 minutes).

(Sorry, no macro breakdown because my calorie counter doesn’t have beef cheeks listed and I am too lazy to go hunting around. My guess is mostly fat and protein, very little carb. Higher in calories than a cut like chuck because it’s fattier)

Breville Slow Cooker: The Flavour Maker

I currently have my eye on the Breville Ikon Slow Cooker (RRP $199.95).

I do have an existing slow cooker but it’s only a 3 or 4 litre one, so when I make my Thai beef cheeks it keeps overflowing, and now there are all these burned-on bits in the inner layer.

The Breville Ikon Slow Cooker is 7 litres, but the main draw for me is the EasySear pan, which lets you sear and slow cook the meat in the same pan. The beef cheeks and also some stews I make require pre-searing in a separate pan, so this would save on washing and seal in all that yummy crusty goodness.

As slow cookers go, this is pretty pricey, but I think it would be worth it, especially considering how often I use it. The cheapest I’ve found it is $167 plus $9.95 postage from PowerBuys but since I don’t need the slow cooker urgently I’m going to wait for a 10-15% sale off small appliances at Myer. That way I can also use a gift card that has some stupid amount left on it, and also get my Myer One points.

Burritos in the slow cooker

Now that James is at home during the day, I’ve been experimenting with inverting the size of our meals. We normally have a small breakfast, medium-sized lunch and large dinner, whereas I’ve heard that it’s actually better to have a big breakfast and a small dinner. I do feel less hungry during the day, but it was pretty weird having burritos for breakfast.

I had to be a bit tricky with the timing – the chuck gets slow cooked for 6 hours, so I stayed up until 2am to chuck everything into the slow cooker. Luckily it’s super quick, so I was in bed at like … 2:05. In the morning I woke up to the smell of burritos in the air. Then it was just a matter of making the guacamole (which, in hindsight, I also should have made the night prior), and assembling the burrito.

This slow cooker recipe makes enough meat for 10 burritos, which will feed me and James for 2 meals. It works out pretty well because the guacamole recipe also makes enough for 10 burritos (although you have to be pretty generous with the servings). A jar of salsa is enough for both meals, and the only thing that doesn’t get used up is the sour cream.

Slow Cooker Burrito Meat

800g beef chuck (I cut this into 4 or 5 big chunks)
1 onion
taco seasoning mix (I make my own, but you can also use the individual serve packets from supermarkets)
1 cup water
1 small jar taco sauce

Method

1. Thinly slice onion and place in slow cooker. Add beef chuck.
2. Combine seasoning mixture with 1 cup water and pour over beef and onion.
3. Set slow cooker to low and heat 6-8 hours (I find 6 is enough but it will depend on your slow cooker)
4. When meat is done, remove from slow cooker and shred with a fork. Add taco sauce and combine.

Even though taco seasoning is cheap at the supermarket I make mine from scratch. It just seems wrong to buy pre-mixed when I already have all the necessary ingredients spices. This recipe from Allrecipes makes about the equivalent of a single serve sachet that you can buy for 50c at Woolworths.

Taco seasoning mix recipe

• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper

Method

1. In a small bowl, mix everything together.

The macronutrient breakdown of the meat is actually pretty good, though obviously the fat and carb counts go up once you add guacamole/cheese/sour cream and the tortillas. But the meat is the tasty part – I bet James would not be opposed to just digging in with a fork.

This time I subbed in low fat sour cream, which tasted like plain yoghurt. That works though, because now I can just use a dollop of yoghurt (which I always have in the fridge) instead of going out and buying sour cream especially. In other healthy news, I realised the other day that I used to be able to eat 4 of these for dinner and now I’m satisfied by eating 2. How times have changed!

 

Very Rough Nutritional Guide
Enough meat for 1 burrito: 110 calories, 23% fat, 69% protein, 8% carbs