Moist, tender beef with a really rich, dark and delicious sauce
Although you don't have to cook this in a pressure cooker (you can slow cook it instead), it will shave a few hours off the process and give you the same meltingly tender results from the meat from just 30 minutes cooking at high pressure.
Ox cheeks are becoming easier to get hold of, now that they've become popular again - although the downside of this is that any surge in popularity means a surge in the price too. However, they're well worth it, as they are one of the tastiest, most tender cuts of beef, when cooked properly. They are practically the beefy embodiment of the word 'unctious'. If you can't get hold of ox cheeks, then beef shin will give you a similarly tender, gelatinous result.
One thing to note about cooking ox cheeks in this way is that they do shrink quite considerably during cooking, so if you want to cut them into single portions, I'd probably go for about 250g each which may seem like a large piece of raw meat, but not once it's shrunk after cooking! I cut it into large chunks about 125g each (so if buying in portions of around 500g, cut into four portions) to cater for my family, where people can choose whether to have one, two or three pieces each that way, according to their appetites (naming no names!). One piece is enough for me and the kids for a small portion, but I think most people would go for two (or three for larger appetites!). If you don't have access to a good butcher to buy your ox cheeks from, they can be found in some Waitrose and Morrisons stores (UK).
Serves from six to eight. Approximately 206 calories per 125g (raw weight) piece of ox cheek with sauce, therefore 412 calories for a serving of two pieces with sauce.
