Roasted Tomato Risotto with Slow Braised Beef Cheeks

Serves 2

Takes 7 hours

Beef cheeks do need a little time and work but when cooked accordingly, they really are a a delight to devour. A tomato-rich risotto, ladened with parmesan and butter stands up to the strong flavours of the cheeks, making for a wonderful pairing. This recipe would be a fabulous weekend treat, where you can really take your time in the kitchen. A bowl of goodness to sink into during these rather chilly evenings.

1. Preheat your oven to 160C.
2. Place all the ingredients for the beef cheeks into a large pot or baking dish. Place the lid on or cover with several layers of foil and place in the oven to slowly braise for 6 hours.
3. Remove from the oven and set aside still covered, to allow to rest.
4. Increase the temperature of your oven to 180C.
5. Place the halved tomatoes, skin-on crushed garlic into a baking tray. Drizzle with 1 tbsp olive oil and season with a generous pinch of salt and pop in the oven to roast for 40 minutes until the tomatoes are blistered and charred.
6. Remove from the oven and set aside for later.
7. To make the risotto, pour a tbsp olive oil into a deep pan on a medium heat. Add in the diced onion and gently sweat down until softened and golden (approx. 7 mins), if they start to colour or catch, add a drop of water to the pan.
8. Add in the risotto rice and stir through the onions to ensure each grain is nicely coated in the flavoured oil. Add in the garlic and cook until smelling fragrant.
9. Squeeze in the tomato paste and cook out for 4 minutes. By now the pan should be feeling pretty dry, pour in the white wine to deglaze and loosen all bits caught on the bottom of the pan – this is all flavour.
10. When the majority of the wine has evaporated and the rice is feeling dry, begin to add in a ladle of the warmed stock, stir through and when the rice has absorbed the liquid, add another. Continue doing this until the rice becomes lovely and plump and softened but still has a bit of a ‘bite’.
11. At this stage, add in the roasted tomato and squeeze the sweet roasted garlic from the skins. Stir through the risotto and season with salt and pepper to taste at this stage.
12. Grate in a generous amount of parmesan – as much or as little as you like, along with the zest of half a lemon.
13. Finish with the knob of butter, stirring though until melted. This will give your risotto a lovely silky sheen.
14. Serve onto plates and place a slow braised beef cheek over the top of the tomato-rich rice, be sure to spoon over some of that lovely cooking liquor from the cheeks and finish with a scattering of chives and some extra parmesan if you wish. Enjoy!

For the braised beef cheeks:

• 2 beef cheeks, trimmed (ask your butcher to do this)
• 1 large onion, sliced into rough disks
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• 400ml vegetable stock
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp brown sugar
• 2 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp smoked paprika

For the Risotto:

• Olive oil
• 200g cherry tomatoes, taken off the vine and halved
• 3 cloves garlic, skin on and crushed
• Pinch of salt
• 300g risotto rice
• 1 white onion, finely diced
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
• 1 tsp tomato paste
• 200ml white wine
• 800ml chicken stock, (kept warm in a saucepan on a low heat)
• Parmesan, for grating
• Knob of butter
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Zest of half a lemon
• Chives, finely chopped for garnish