So a bit about bone marrow... To be honest, even though I’m all for the ‘nose-to-tail’ eating theory, offal challenges me. I want to like it, really I do but I still struggle. My wee girl likes marrow, she even has a marrow fork for extracting marrow from long thin places. It grosses all my friends out and is a great party trick.
So at a dinner party recently I attempted Jason Atherton’s Dexter Beef 3 ways from the Great British Menu. It was a huge hit. Dexter cheek, slow cooked; Dexter fillet served medium rare and a marrow crumble. The marrow crumble was made with breadcrumbs, marrow, garlic and the like fried in olive oil. I ordered the marrow along with my usual goodies from F&B and set about getting the stuff out of the bone. I was hoping it would just slide on out as Grant said it would, but my first attempt was with a spoon, scooping it into a bowl of water. It left me with what looked like blood porridge... gross. But I persevered, cooked it up and what do you know? It was sensational!! Did I mention the smoked potato puree on the side? That was awesome too .
I now have a bag of bones in my trusty chest freezer, all cut into handy 3 inch pieces. It cost me less than $5.
So on to my experiments. So far there have been two. One piece I thawed and then pushed the marrow out of the bone (worked better this time, came out like a wee sausage) which I then sliced into rounds, crumbed, shallow fried and served it on Dexter eye fillet (one of our rare prime cut nights).
As an aside, can I tell you how much more we enjoy prime cuts now they are the exception rather than the rule?
The second piece I used whilst making a stew. I had a high tea to go to so I needed something I could throw in the oven that would be ready for when I got home in the evening – bless the slow cooked meal! Chuck steak (probably the Dexter I keep banging on about) onions, garlic, red wine, star anise, porcini mushrooms and I threw in a marrow bone. I’m sure there was some other stuff in there, just can’t remember now... the usual stew suspects.
I put it in the oven low and slow and went off to enjoy an arvo with the girls. When I came home and pulled it out of the oven there was a small panicking moment where I thought it had boiled dry but not so... I topped it up with water, pushed the marrow out and stirred it through. OHMIGOD probably the best stew I have ever made... ever. Really. Ever.
It was actually a warm evening not truly suited to stew but I was unrepentant and plan to repeat this particular project many times over winter when the slow cooker comes out...
Get some marrow bones – they rock.
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