Asian Chilli Beef Croquettes
These may seem like quite a faff to make, but I promise they are actually super-easy, and oh-so worth it!
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 beef cheeks, trimmed, halved
4 cloves garlic, crushed 2 red chillies, sliced
1 thumb-sized piece fresh ginger, sliced
2 cups beef stock
½ cup mirin (Japanese rice wine)
2 tablespoons soy sauce 3 star anise finely grated zest 1 orange 2 teaspoons caster sugar sea salt and ground pepper 1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons plain flour 4 cups breadcrumbs ¼ cup sesame seeds 3 eggs, whisked
5 cups high smoke point cooking oil
SESAME MAYO
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 cup good-quality mayonnaise
½ teaspoon black sesame seeds
TO SERVE
3 spring onions, sliced 1 red chilli, sliced chilli sauce
Heat the oil in a heavy-based pot and sear the beef cheeks on all sides then set aside. Add the garlic, chillies, ginger, stock, mirin, soy sauce, star anise, orange zest and sugar and stir to combine. Add the beef cheeks back to the pot, season and bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce the heat to a gentle simmer, cover and cook for 4 hours. Alternatively at this point you can transfer the pot to the oven and cook at 160°C for 4 hours. Remove the lid and cook a further 40-60 minutes until super-tender.
Drain the beef cheeks through a sieve, reserving the cooking liquid. Shred the beef cheeks and set aside. Melt the butter in a saucepan and whisk in the flour and 1 cup of the reserved cooking liquid. Cook, whisking, for 5 minutes, or until thickened. Add the shredded beef cheeks, season to taste if necessary and refrigerate for at least 3 hours.
Place the breadcrumbs and sesame seeds in a bowl and the eggs in a second bowl. Take tablespoonfuls of the cold beef mixture, roll into balls then roll in the breadcrumbs to coat. Do all of them, then, starting with the first one again, dip each crumbed ball into the egg and roll in breadcrumbs again. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour – or as long as overnight – before cooking.
Heat the oil in a large, deep saucepan until it has a sheen on the surface and a bread cube dropped in will pop to the surface and fry to golden in about 20 seconds. Fry the croquette balls in batches of 5-6 at a time for 3-4 minutes until golden and heated through.
SESAME MAYO: Whisk the sesame oil into the mayonnaise and store in the fridge (it keeps for up to a week). Garnish with black sesame seeds.
TO SERVE: Serve the croquettes immediately with spring onions, sliced chillies, chilli sauce and sesame mayo. MAKES 18