Braised Beef Cheeks with Beetroot Gnocchi

This recipe came originally from a website dedicated to the brilliance that is Canberra, can you believe it? I originally found it when trawling the web to find a good recipe incorporating beetroot gnocchi! This dish certainly looks fancy and is sure to impress, but it stressed the heck out of me in the kitchen! Lots of stuff going on at once. Don't attempt without at least 3 burners!

Beef cheeks are available at many butchers if you don't ask. A secondary cut of meat that is gaining in popularity, it is rich and riddled with tendons and marbled fat and obviously requires extended cooking to bring out it's succulent beauty.

Kangaroo, Beetroot, Bocconcini & Grilled Shallots on Carrot Noir

Whilst at a work function the other week, i was flicking through the television in my hotel room when onto the screen came a blast from my culinary past: Gabriel Gate. Alongside Geoff Jansz, Gabriel Gate is probably the first 'celebrity chef' that i can remember seeing, from the good old days of midday television when i was a child. Funnily, i'd never seen anyone actually make their dishes. Well, Gabriel Gate was taking the viewer through, in 3 minutes no less, a beautiful French salad of beetroot and fresh herbs on this intriguing black puree, all of this somehow connected to the Tour De France.

Well a bit of research showed me that the black puree was made from burnt carrots, which i've decided to fancy up a bit and call carrot noir. The sweetness of the carrots is tempered by the smokiness that the burning imparts, but it was much less overpowering than i imagined. I tried to match the flavors in the 'salad' as best as i could, to turn it into a main attraction kind of affair. I think i succeeded!

If you're not in Australia, i would recommend replacing the kangaroo with spring lamb.