WEEK 32: YOUR BEST NOSE TO TAIL RECIPE
Barbacoa Beef Cheek Tacos
Photography by Sarah Shatz
BY AARGERSI | SERVES 6 TO 8 (DEPENDING ON HOW MANY TACOS EACH PERSON CAN EAT!)
A&M: When we asked for “nose to tail” recipes, we didn’t expect to see many universal crowd-pleasers, but aargersi’s tacos are just that. The beef cheeks, marbled and melting after more than three hours in the oven, absorb the spices, coffee, chile, and peanut butter from the marinade and sing with the freshness of the lime juice in which they’re braised. Add a warm corn tortilla, some addictive pink pickled onions, a slab of avocado, and a fistful of cilantro leaves, and you’ve got an epic taco. Make sure to save any leftover onions! We’ve used them on toasts with smoked salmon, in watercress salads, and on top of burgers.
PICKLED ONION
1 red onion, peeled
¼ beet, scrubbed well
1 handful cilantro leaves
1 tablespoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
Cider vinegar
BARBACOA BEEF CHEEKS
2½ pounds beef cheeks or short ribs
1 dried ancho chile
4 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tablespoon natural peanut butter
1 teaspoon instant espresso powder
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon honey
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon smoked sweet paprika
1 handful fresh cilantro, plus more for serving
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup chicken broth (you can use beef too; I just had chicken on hand)
3 limes
Corn tortillas
1 avocado, sliced
- Make the pickled onion. Slice the onion very thinly and put it in a micro waveable container. Add the beet, cilantro, salt, and sugar. Cover everything with 1 part water to 2 parts vinegar.
- Micro wave for 1 minute, stir, and micro wave for another minute. Cool, then refrigerate overnight. The beet will turn the onion a really pretty hot pink color. Remove the beet before serving.
- Prepare the cheeks. Clean and trim the beef cheeks. Put them in a container in which you can marinate them.
- Remove the stem and seeds from the ancho chile, cut it into chunks, and rehydrate it in a little hot water (I stick it in a ramekin and micro wave for 30 seconds).
- Combine the ancho chile and soaking water, garlic, peanut butter, espresso powder, 2 tablespoons of the olive oil, the honey, cumin, paprika, cilantro, and salt in a food processor and blend into a paste. Toss the paste with the cheeks, cover, and marinate in the refrigerator for several hours or, better yet, overnight.
- When it is time to cook, heat the oven to 275°F and heat the remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat. Brown the cheeks on both sides. Use the broth to rinse the rest of the marinade into the Dutch oven, then squeeze the juice of the limes in.
- Braise for 3 ½ hours, turning the cheeks over once or twice while they cook. If the liquid dries up, add a bit more broth.
- When the cheeks are fall-apart tender, use two forks to pull the meat apart in the pan so that it mixes in with all the fatty juicy goodness.
- To serve: Heat 2 tortillas (I like to double-wrap the tacos, as they are juicy). Fill with the barbacoa, a slice of avocado, some of the pickled onions, and some fresh cilantro. Serve and enjoy!
Photography by Sarah Shatz
TIPS AND TECHNIQUES
“I couldn’t face a whole cow head … so I made this with cheeks,” aargersi said. Well, we’ve also made it with short ribs, and they work beautifully, too!
ABOUT THE COOK
Abbie Argersinger is a marketing database manager in Austin, Texas.
Her favorite recipe from a cookbook: “I am going to say Tagine of Chicken with Preserved Lemons and Artichokes from Kitty Morse’s Cooking at the Kasbah—it got me on the road to Moroccan food and is the first thing I ever cooked in my tagine.”
WHAT THE COMMUNITY SAID
JKohler: “Substituted brisket and it was great. Onions were yummy, too. Leftovers will make for a nice salad tomorrow.”