Japanese influence a cheeky addition to beef

JOSH Barlow is a well known chef on New Zealand’s flourishing food scene. At 28, he is head chef at the The Grove in Auckland, one of New Zealand’s top restaurants.

Last year, Barlow travelled to Tokyo, to film a Vice documentary with Tokyo Dry, where he merged his Kiwi experience with Japanese ingredients and inspiration. Alongside local chef Nori Tsugawa, he produced dishes that were later served at Nori’s restaurant, Shitorasu. Despite the language barrier the two chefs shared the same approach to food. With both insisting on fresh ingredients, sourced locally.

Drawing on this experience Barlow shares a favourite recipe using Tokyo Dry, a premium lager which mixes NZ ingredients with Japanese brewing techniques.

Beef cheek cooked in Steinlager Tokyo Dry with bonito, charred pickled onions and pickled red

cabbage Serves 6 Beef Cheeks 4 Beef Cheeks 2 Carrots 2 Onions 1 Head of garlic 20gm Thyme 15gm Bonito Flakes 4 bottles of Steinlager Tokyo Dry 1L Beef Stock Season the Beef Cheeks with salt and pepper and caramelise them on the barbecue until they are golden brown. Slice the onions and carrots. Place them in a hot roasting tray in the oven to caramelise. Add the beef cheeks and all the other ingredients with enough beef stock and beer to completely submerge them. Cover the tray with foil and let them braise in the oven at 140 degrees Celsius for around 4 hours. Remove the braising liquor and pass it through a sieve to remove all the vegetables.

Reduce the liquor in a pot until it starts to go thick. Pour it over the beef cheeks and put them back in the oven. Keep basting them until they go sticky and glossy. Charred pickled onions 3 Medium white skinned onions Cook the onions in a pot of salted water until they are tender but not too soft. Let chill. Peel them and cut them through the middle. Char the

onions in a very hot dry pan until they are completely burnt on the cut side. Let them chill and then peel each petal away from the onion. Place them in the below pickle liquor and leave them. Tokyo Dry pickle liquor 330 ml Tokyo Dry 150 ml Cider vinegar 40gm Honey 40gm Sugar 5gm Fennel seeds 1 clove garlic Heat all ingredients in a pan together except for the beer. Add the beer off the heat so you don’t lose the flavour of the beer. Red cabbage Slice the red cabbage as thin as you can, avoiding all the thick parts where the stem is. Season with salt and pepper and dress with some olive oil and a mustard dressing. If you really want to go all out, you can juice the trim from the red cabbage, reduce this by half in a pot. Then add a little bit of vinegar or lemon juice to this and use it to dress the cabbage. It tastes unreal plus you’ll get an amazing bright purple dressing,

Serve the beef cheek hot and the onions and cabbage at room temperature. Add some thinly sliced radishes right at the last minute to add some freshness to the dish. It might pay you have a few cold Tokyo Dry to serve with this dish.