Winter warmer doesn’t get a look in. Beef cheeks in red wine is a pure unadulterated “arms around you comfort snuggle” and so easy. Five ingredients, one knife and an oven is all you need.

Being a farmer, juggling two jobs, five children and a greedy black lab, dinner time needs to be easy.

I’m a great fan of the wonders of slow cooking and one pot makes this recipe perfect for busy week-nights

At Harris Farm Shop, Strathaven, we introduce customers to different cuts of meat, and promote using the whole animal, top to tail. These cuts are often less expensive and full of flavour.

Cooking the cuts right is often the worry for customers.

You have to cook them in a way that complements the flavour and texture. For example flatiron and hanger steaks cry out to be eaten rare or medium rare. Shin should be slow cooked, and the mightly Tomahawk should be served quickly, ready to carve.

To serve beef cheeks, you should cook them low and slow to make them melt in the mouth, which means that you can pop them in the oven and not have to worry about them for a few hours, perfect when you’re very busy!

All of the cuts mentioned below are available from Harris Farm Meats.

For more information, visit: www.harrisfarmmeats.scot

Serve 4

Ingredients

2 beef cheeks

½ bottle decent red wine

2 red onions, quartered

1 garlic bulb, loosely separated

1 cup beef stock

Method

1 Pre-heat the oven to 150°C.

2 Place the beef cheeks in an ovenproof dish with the red onion, and garlic bulb.

3 Pour in the wine and the beef stock.

4 Cover and place in the oven for roughly 4 hours.

5 After 4 hours check the beef cheeks. If the dish is starting to dry out, add some more wine and stock. Then turn up the oven to 180°C and cook for a further 3 hours.

6 After the further 3 hours, uncover and check. If the cheeks have a spongy texture and taste then cover and put back in for a little longer.

7 The meat will be ready when it is falling apart. Serve in rustic chunks with the sauce from the dish which will be rich and bursting with flavour.

8 The beef cheeks are perfect on top of a mound of fluffy mashed potatoes and with creamed winter veg.