Beef Cheek with Rice Soubise
As seen on TV
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Who made this dish?
Pressure-Cooked Beef Cheek over Rice Soubise with Kashk, Saffron-Cured Egg Yolk, Pioppini Mushrooms, and Chermoula
Chris was assigned Suzanne Goin's iconic braised beef cheek with rice soubise and salsa verde to reinvent.
Chris: "Stunning dish. This is a very intimidating commandment, and I don't want to bastardize Chef Suzanne's dish. I want to make sure that I can pay respect. I really want to create the same structure — I want to have the soubise, I want to have the beef cheek on top just like she does. But I want the flavors and the vegetables to be different."
Chris: "Usually it takes me about three and a half to four hours to properly braise beef cheeks. I feel like my best chance for success is to use beef cheeks. It's a game of high risk, high reward. I'm going to try to do it in an hour and 45 using the pressure cooker. Anything can go wrong with a pressure cooker. It could overcook it. It could be undercooked. The liquid could cook out. I don't know how quick that's gonna happen. And then it burns."
Chris: "My innovation is to reinterpret her dish using my flavors. I'm leaning into a blend of Middle Eastern and Persian food. I don't want to take a contemporary approach to this and do something super cheffy. I just want to create a delicious plate of food that's going to pay homage to her dish." Chris: "I'm going to be doing soubise in the style of sabzi polo, which is herb rice with cilantro confit, garlic, and parsley. And I'll be folding in kashk, which is like a fermented yogurt, and then beef cheek with golpar, which is Persian hogweed, Aleppo chili, coriander, and turmeric. And then I'll be doing a saffron-cured egg yolk, some pioppini mushrooms, and chermoula." Chris (presenting): "In front of you is a rice soubise, and I finished it with kashk, which is a fermented yogurt product from Iran. On the top, you have a spiced beef cheek seasoned with golpar — Persian hogweed — coriander, Aleppo chili, and then lightly cured saffron egg yolk, some roasted pioppini mushrooms, and chermoula. It's my second time using the pressure cooker in my career." Chris on the broken egg yolks: "It didn't cure for quite long enough, so they broke over the mushrooms. But I did want it to eat and mix into the dish, so I think it still achieved the flavor and richness that I was hoping for."
Suzanne Goin: "I love all the flavors that you brought to it from Persia and the Middle East. It has the earthiness, the comforting-ness. I love the flavor of that saffron and the egg. I think you did a great job."
Wylie Dufresne: "Considering that you and the pressure cooker are not that well acquainted, you did a great job. There's some beautiful bits of, you know, the way that collagen turns to gelatin, and you get that little sticky bit on your lips."
Padma Lakshmi: "I like that sticky collagen too. I'm using it on my lips now. Lip gloss."
Wylie Dufresne: "Chris, this plate was visually very similar to Suzanne's, but yet was very different — using a lot of the flavors we've come to know and love from you. I think you gave this dish some great, innovative twists and turns. For me, I thought the rice was a little under seasoned. I think it could have used a little bit more salt."
Result: advances to Final Cook.
