Preheat oven to 150C.
Season beef cheeks with salt and pepper. Heat a frying pan with coconut oil over high heat, brown the cheeks on each side and place in a heavy-based casserole.
Deglaze the frying pan with port, then add onion, butter, cardamon seeds, vinegar, bay leaves, tomato paste, cloves, vanilla beans, pepper and beef stock. Mix through and bring to almost simmer, then carefully pour over beef cheeks in the casserole dish.
Assemble beef cheeks so they don’t overlap and garlic and onion are distributed evenly amoungst them. Cover with foil and place the casserole in the oven. Cook covered for around 3 hours 15 minutes, turning beef cheeks frequently, say every 20-25 minutes.
Then remove foil, add carrots and cook uncovered for another 1 hour and 15 minutes. Make sure to keep turning the beef cheeks as they will start to brown and dry up on the top. Taste for seasoning and add salt if needed but there should be loads given the beef stock is reduced.
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