Veal Cheeks in Rosemary Balsamic Sauce

Veal cheek:

1. Preheat the oven to 100 degrees. Put a deep plate in it.
2. Parry the cheeks, while not removing the thick inner tendons! These dissolve during the cooking process. Freeze the paring in order to keep it for the next preparation of the stock.
3. Pat the meat clean and dry and season with salt and pepper on both sides. Tie into balls with the kitchen twine. Fry all over in hot clarified butter. While the meat is browning, clean the vegetables, just peel the celery, cut everything into large pieces. Also leave the onion unpeeled!
4. Remove the meat and place it on the preheated plate covered with aluminum foil and place it warm in the oven. Fry the vegetables and parsley in the roasting tray until they take on a light color. Add the veal cheeks again. Deglaze with the soy sauce and 3 cl cognac. Briefly give high heat until the resulting brew is almost completely reduced.
5. Now heat the oven to 120 degrees.
6. Pour red wine and veal stock, add 2 sprigs of rosemary and the bay leaves.
7. Place the open casserole on the bottom of the oven. Simmer for 3.5 hours, the heat should be regulated so that it makes a soft “bubble” every 2 minutes. If the liquid boils down too quickly, add a little more wine if necessary. The meat also works well with less heat and more time, but the oven temperature should not go below 100 degrees.
8. Remove the veal cheeks from the stock and keep covered in the oven. Let the brew run through a fine sieve into a saucepan, spreading it out well. Add the rest of the rosemary and slowly reduce by half over medium heat, leaving about 400 ml.

Balsamic stock:

1. If there is no old balsamic vinegar in stock, do not use the brew at all. Under no circumstances should you replace the balsamic vinegar with a cheaper version of balsamic vinegar, otherwise the sauce will taste sour!
2. Toast the tomato paste with the ketchup in a small saucepan with a coated base, deglaze with the remaining cognac and balsamic vinegar and let it reduce until only a very tough syrup remains. Add this to the sauce.
3. Season the sauce with salt and pepper and pour through a fine sieve again.
4. Put the butter pieces in the hot, not boiling sauce with the whisk, this binds and gives an irresistible shine. If the sauce gets too runny, bind with a little arrowroot flour (available in health food stores), do not use cornstarch, it makes the sauce dull and slimy! Otherwise it is better to leave a little more liquid!
5. Remove the veal cheeks from the twine and put them back into the sauce, cut into slices, let them steep.

Truffled celery puree:

1. Peel and clean the celery and cut into 2 cm cubes. Put in a saucepan with a little salt and cover halfway with water. Cover and bring to the boil and cook over medium heat for 20 minutes.
2. Drain the celery, let it evaporate a little and use a kitchen towel to squeeze the water out of the celery.
3. Put the celery back in the pan, add the butter and truffle butter and puree with the magic wand. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Red wine shallots:

1. Roast shallots in oil with powdered sugar. Season with salt and reduce the black currant juice, red wine and balsamic vinegar until a jelly-like sauce is formed (approx. 20-25 minutes).