Beef cheek croustillant with celeriac remoulade and salsa verte recipe

Place the beef cheeks in a dish and add the shallot, garlic clove, carrot, celery, rosemary, thyme, red wine and port. Turn the beef cheeks over in the liquid, making sure they get well coated, and leave to marinate in the refrigerator overnight.

The next day, preheat the oven to 160°C. Heat the oil in a large heavy-based, ovenproof saucepan. Take the beef cheeks out of the marinade and add to the oil, cooking until browned on each side. Pour in half the liquid from the marinade and bring to the boil. Add the vegetables and herbs from the marinade (discarding the remaining liquid) and pour in the veal stock. Return to the boil, then remove from the heat and cover the saucepan with foil. Transfer to the oven and bake for around 2 ½–3 hours, until the cheeks are tender enough to break up with a spoon. Take the cheeks out of the liquid and leave to cool for 30 minutes or so. Reserve the liquid.

Start the croustillant by heating a splash of oil in a frying pan. Add the carrot and celery and sauté for a few minutes. Remove from the heat before they become soft, so they retain some crunch.

Place the beef cheeks in a large bowl and break up the meat finely with a spoon or fork. Add the sautéed carrot and celery along with the parsley and 2–3 tablespoons of cooking liquid from the cheeks. Season with salt and mix well. Lay a piece of plastic wrap on a work surface and place around 3–4 tablespoons of the beef mixture on top. Roll the beef tightly in the plastic to form a sausage. Continue making another 6–8 sausages with the mixture. Chill the sausages in the refrigerator for 1 hour to firm up.

To assemble the croustillant, lay a sheet of pastry on a work surface. Add a sausage unwrapped from its plastic about a third of the way across the pastry. Brush the remaining two-thirds of pastry with beaten egg and roll the sausage up inside the pastry. The egg should stick the pastry together. Trim off the excess pastry at the ends of the sausage. Continue rolling the remaining sausages in pastry. Refrigerate until ready to cook. 



To make the remoulade, mix the celeriac and a pinch of salt in a bowl. Stir in the mayonnaise and parsley. 



To make the sauce verte, combine all the ingredients in a blender and blend to a smooth puree.

Heat some olive oil in a frying pan and add the sausages wrapped in pastry. Fry, turning every so often, until golden brown all over.

To serve, place a spoonful of remoulade onto each plate. Next to it add a dollop of sauce verte. Cut the sausages in half and add 3–4 pieces to each plate, sitting them on top of the sauce.

SBS cook’s notes Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55–60 g, unless specified.