Braised Taunus beef ox cheeks on warm Frankfurt potato salad with Bellini dressing

Restaurant Blumen / Frankfurt am Main

Ingredients:

4 ox cheeks
3-4 carrots
1/2 stick of celery
4 garlic cloves
2 red onions
2 twigs of rosemary
6 twigs of thyme
5 bay leaves
1 tin of tomato puree
sugar
clarified butter
1 litre of red wine

Preparation:

Remove the coarser sinews from the ox cheeks with a sharp knife, heat the clarified butter and sprinkle in some sugar. Wait until the sugar has caramelized and then add it to the ox cheeks. Add coarsely chopped garlic.

Let the cheeks turn golden brown before setting them aside. Place the coarsely chopped onions, carrots and celery in the saucepan, braise the vegetables and add tomato puree. Then add the herbs and then douse with half a bottle of red wine (berry-flavoured, with some acid) and then allow the mixture to come to a bubble.

Then add more tomato puree and douse the mixture with the rest of the red wine. Place the ox cheeks back in the saucepan and add enough water to cover them. Braise for two-and-a-half hours.

Remove the ox cheeks carefully and then finely sieve the sauce, taste it and if necessary cook for a little longer or add a little more red wine or a dash of brandy.

For the potato salad

The dressing:
1/4 packet of finely cut herbs (eg borage, sorrel, burnet, chervil, chives, parsley, cress, lemon balm, lovage)
1 tablespoon of medium hot mustard
two diced white vineyard peaches
two diced dried tomatoes
1 litre of sunflower oil
1 dash of champagne

Puree the mustard, peach and oil. Add lemon juice and salt and pepper to taste and puree again. Stir in the cut herbs and the tomatoes. Give the dressing a bit of fizz with a dash of champagne, stir lightly and serve immediately.

The potatoes
Cook 300 - 500 g new potatoes in salted water without letting them go too soft, run cold water over them briefly, before peeling and slicing them. Then toss them in a little butter and add some dressing.

Serve with some cress, red currant dressing and crispily baked bay leaves cut into the finest slices. Add a pinch of seasalt.

Serve the warm potato salad in the middle of a large white place, place one of the slowly reheated ox cheeks on them and pour over a little sauce. Then add a little dressing around the outside and a few drops of red currant dressing for colour contrast. Add freshly cut cress, then place the strips of bay leaves and a little sea salt.