While wandering randomly around a specialist food shop this afternoon and browsing the meat counter, I saw beef marrow bones. It can be hard to find these in today’s modern, fillet-steak-eating-and-offal-hating world and they immediately made me reminisce about the bone marrow salad that I once had at St John several years ago and keep getting flashbacks of. So I had to buy some. And parsley, because I remembered that parsley had featured in the dish.
So I got home, got out our copy of Nose to Tail Eating and thankfully the recipe was in there. It is simple in the extreme. Heat up the oven to quite high (we did ours to 200 which is as high as the stupid thing will go) and roast the marrow bones for 20 minutes. While this is going on, chop up your parsley. But not too much. The book says to chop it just enough to “discipline” it, which sounds a little risque. Then add a sliced shallot, a few capers and dress with a squeeze of lemon and a drizzle of olive oil. Also make some toast.
When the marrow bones are cooked, serve them with the parsley salad, toast and some coarse sea salt. Spread some of the marrow on the toast, sprinkle with salt and top with the salad. The marrow is gooey and rich and the toast is crunchy, with the parsley adding freshness and the capers, shallot and lemon juice cutting through the richness. Delicious.
Always wanted to try this but never seen bones for sale. Love your description
.-= Becky´s last blog ..Freshly Caught Trout =-.
I also had this and I remember being a little bit disappointed at the time – perhaps because I had built it up so much in my head. I now think about it all the time however. I actually crave it. I really should look out for marrow bones more!
.-= Helen´s last blog ..Beefy, Beefy Rendang =-.
What a lovely idea! We get ‘lesser’ bone in the meat cuts all the time which we use in stews. The marrow is always so tasty. I can’t wait to try this in a salad.
.-= Wizzythestick´s last blog ..Farewell My Love =-.
A few weeks later, friends cooked a huge pot of pot-au-feu which traditionally has some marrow bones in it along with everything else. We brought along some of this parsley salad to have with the marrow bones and it worked very well both with the marrow bones and with the rest of the pot-au-feu too.