Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Braised Ox Cheeks and Meatball Soup

My word the weather here in Brighton is fast becoming rubbish – after a pleasant end to September the last three days have seen the skies open and buckets of rain descend…

…enough to make the most stout-hearted soul depressed, or at least take refuge in a hot bowl of soup.
Little admission…today was the first time we tried making soup in the Cook Japan rice cooker – it has a “soup function”, we just have not got round to trying it before.  The plan was to get some shin beef, but the butcher didn’t have any…slight downer, but what he did have was ox cheeks – an absolute steal at £1.56 for 400g!

If you hadn’t noticed yet, I love my Cook Japan rice cooker, the versatility is great…the ox cheeks, lamb mince meatballs, onion and garlic were cooked using the “Braise” function then the water, tomatoes, root vegetables, seasoning, bit of wine and splashes of random sauce bottles around the kitchen all got chucked in and once the appliance clicked into “Keep Warm” mode the soup was left for several hours to develop its flavour…

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Look at these cheeky chaps, don’t you fancy one?  The flavour was so rich after 3 or 4 hours on a low heat, and really succulent and juicy…

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Perhaps should have skimmed it before greedily diving into a bowl, but I quite enjoy the lip smacking aspect of the meat fat when its a thin soup like this – I like the way its adds more depth to the flavour when its not a hearty soup in its own right…

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Very tasty and at £1.56 for 400g a true recession-boosting dish!

For more information visit: www.cookjapan.co.uk