The problem I have is a problem that most chefs encounter at some point. How do you improve a dish that has been on your menu forever. We all have perennial favorites that we can never take off and the sentiment is always that if it isnt broken dont fix it!
The old Sticky Beef was a lump of braised featherblade. Parsnip mash and braised chicory. With J choke crisps and a boiled down jus hence the sticky nature. I never liked the pub grub attributes of this and in fact it was quite a bit of prep for little reward.
For the new dish we start with Ox cheek. Better flavour than blade and less of that snotty sinew through the middle. This was salted for 6 hours and the bark removed. Often there is a slash mark across the cheek but for the final dish it wont really matter.
After a 6 hour salting wash off the cheek and either hard roast or pan fry to colour. Sous vide with braising liqour and either water bath or steam for 16hrs at 85c. This would be outside of normal cooking parameters and a better result is obtained by allowing to rest in the bag for an hour before chilling.
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