For your enjoyment…

Do you feel the same as I do on weekends on or special holidays, or when you have guests over? I’d like to cook something very special, not the usual fare. Then I’m either spoiled for choice or I can’t think of anything at all. If even intensively searching the internet turns out to be fruitless or leafing through piles of cookbooks doesn’t turn up any solution, try our Recipe of the Month!

From the chefs of the Schick Restaurants in Vienna, every month there is a new, seasonal recipe from Austrian-Spanish or Viennese cuisine for you to prepare and enjoy at home! If you don’t want to have to prepare the recipe yourself, you can order the finished dish in comfort at the corresponding Schick Restaurant and indulge all around…

In April 2016 – recipe by Marcel Neumann – new chef of the decorated Restaurant “Das Schick”:

Fillet and cheek of beef
asparagus . Manchego-potato biscuits

Ingredients for 4 servings:

Marinade:
400 ml red wine
300 ml red port wine
3 fresh bay leaves (or 2 dry leaves)
3 cloves
3 pimento seeds
salt
pepper

1 kg beef cheeks (or roast beef)
3 tbsp. oil for frying
1 carrot, cut into large cubes
2 onions, cut into large cubes
1/2 celery root, cut into large cubes
100 g cloves of garlic, coarsely chopped
4 thyme springs
1 tbsp. tomato paste
food starch as a binding agent

0.7 kg beef filet
butter, thyme and garlic (for final frying)

Manchego-potato biscuits:
160 g floury potatoes, boiled and peeled
3 egg yolks
100 ml cream
200 g Manchego cheese, finely grated
salt
pepper
nutmeg

Asparagus:
1 bunch of green asparagus
1/2 bunch of white asparagus
1 shallot
salt
pepper
butter
sugar
1 lemon

Preparation:

Beef cheeks: Combine ingredients for the marinade. Place beef cheeks into the marinade mixture and marinate for at least 24 hours in the refrigerator. If the beef cheeks are not fully covered, turn them over every now and then. After marinating, remove the beef cheeks from the marinade and pat dry. Season with salt and pepper.

Heat oil in a large stewpot and sauté beef cheeks evenly. Remove from stewpot. Sweat diced vegetables in the remaining drippings and oil. Add tomato paste and sweat. Add beef cheeks and thyme and quench with the marinade. Bake, covered, for approx. 2 1/2 hours at 180°C (using both top and bottom heating elements). Afterwards, remove the meat and set aside.

Pour the sauce through a sieve and thicken it by boiling a bit, using food starch or kneaded butter if necessary. Season to taste with salt, pepper and a pinch of sugar. Place the meat back into the sauce.

Beef filet: Clean the filet and cut into 4 equally sized pieces. Sear the filet pieces on all sides, then bake at 125°C for approx. 8 minutes using a convection oven. Afterwards, remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly for 3 minutes in order for the filet to be perfectly medium well-done.

Biscuits: Strain boiled potatoes through a food mill and mix with the remaining ingredients. Slowly fry dollops of the mixture in an oiled pan until small biscuit-like shapes form.

Asparagus: Peel white asparagus. From the green asparagus, only remove the wooden-like parts towards the bottom of the stems. Boil in salted water with a bit of sugar and lemon until al dente.

Cut off the asparagus tips into pieces approx. 1.5 cm in length, and slice the remaining asparagus into nicely sized pieces. Finely dice shallots and sauté with the sliced asparagus in a bit of peanut oil, then quench with a bit of water from the asparagus. Heat the asparagus tips only with a bit of asparagus stock and butter.

Arrange all components in an appetizing manner – as in our photo, for instance – and enjoy.

We wish you much success and bon appétit!