Beef Cheeks in Red Wine

These delicious beef cheeks are the first recipe of our camp cooking series. Dwayne and I have hit the road with a camper trailer, travelling from Darwin to Adelaide, camping and cooking on the way.

Table of Contents

How did this come about?

As you may know, we have lived on our boat for the last six years. Earlier this year, we sailed from Phuket on SY Nomad, a yacht we agreed to take to Sydney for our friends.

However, two months later, COVID-19 messed up our plans. Now, our current home is a camper trailer until we can get back to our boat SV Thorfinn. It is great to be camping again. And we love cooking over the campfire.

Our Camp Kitchen

We cooked these delicious braised beef cheeks in the Florence Falls Camp Ground at Litchfield National Park in the Northern Territory.

Beef Cheeks Slow Cooked in Red Wine

2 – 4 beef cheeks
1 tablespoon flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cracked pepper
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 onion, diced
1 carrot, diced
1-2 celery, diced
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 cups red wine
1 cup beef stock
4 bay leaves,
1 teaspoon dried thyme

Method

Mix the flour, salt and pepper, and dust the beef cheeks. Heat oil and brown the cheeks on both sides.

Remove the cheeks and add onions, garlic, carrot and celery to the pan. Sauté over medium until onion becomes transparent. Add the two cups of wine and cook to reduce the wine a little.

Put beef cheeks into the camp oven, add red wine – veggie mix, beef stock, bay leaves, and thyme.

Cook slowly with the heat at the top and bottom of the camp oven for three to four hours. The cheeks are cooked when you stick a pair of tongs into one, and the meat falls apart.

I served my beef cheeks with mashed parsnip and blanched capsicum and beans.

Cooking in a camp oven on an open fire takes a lot of practice. Start by adding a few coals or heat beads beneath your camp oven and twice as much on top. Have a look in 15 minutes to see if it is cooking the way you want it to, and add more heat or remove heat as needed. With practice, you will soon learn how to control the temperature. Remember that several factors will vary your heat, e.g. ambient air temperature and the type of wood/fuel you use.

Oven instructions – 160C/320F for 3 1/2 – 4 hours.