Braised pork cheeks with caraway dark beer sauce and Waldviertler dumplings

Ingredients

• 800 g pork cheeks
• some frying fat
• 2 pieces of carrots, cut into cubes
• 1/2 piece celery root, medium size, cut into cubes
• 2 pcs. beetroot, yellow, diced
• 3 pcs. onions, medium sized, diced
• 2 pcs. garlic cloves
• 2 tbsp tomato puree
• thyme
• rosemary
• 0.3 litre red wine, strong
• 0.3 litre Zwettler “Dunkles”
• 1 tbsp flour
• sea salt
• pepper, ground
• 1 tbsp caraway seeds
• 500 g potatoes, floury
• 100 g potato starch
• 4 g semolina
• parsley

Preparation

Pork cheeks

Fry the pork cheeks in roasting fat, place in a deep, ovenproof dish and preheat the oven to 160 °C. Roast the carrots, beetroot, celery, onions and garlic cloves in the roasting tin. Add the tomato purée and herbs and fry briefly, dust with the flour, pour in a little red wine and reduce. Pour in 2 or 3 more drops of wine and reduce. Pour in the remaining red wine and bring to the boil. Add the roasted vegetables to the meat, making sure it is well covered with the stock. Cover and simmer in the preheated oven for approx. 45 minutes, stirring occasionally, season with salt and pepper. Then remove the meat and vegetables, strain the sauce and reduce to the desired consistency with caraway seeds and beer. Now add the meat and vegetables again.

Dumplings

Boil the potatoes, press through a ricer, mix with starch and semolina and work into a smooth dough. Shape the dumplings, place in boiling salted water and cook for between 15 and 20 minutes, depending on the size. If desired, toss in a pan with melted butter and sprinkle with parsley when serving.