Cook the Book: Roast Bone Marrow and Parsley Salad, Anthony Bourdain's Last Supper
The first recipe out of the gate this week is from a Serious Eats favorite, Anthony Bourdain, whose last meal would take place at St. John, prepared by the restaurant's proprietor, Fergus Henderson. When we talked to him last year, he also listed this dish as his favorite comfort food. The recipe follows the jump.
Roast Bone Marrow and Parsley Salad
- serves 3 -
Adapted from My Last Supper by Melanie Dunea.
Ingredients
12 three-inch (7 1/2-centimeter) pieces veal marrowbone
1 bunch flat-leaf parsley, leaves picked from stems
2 shallots, peeled and very thinly sliced
2 tablespoons (30 grams) capers
2 tablespoons (30 ml) extra-virgin olive oil
Juice of 1 lemon
Coarse sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Toasted bread, for serving
Procedure
1. Prepare the bones: Put the bones in an ovenproof frying pan or roasting pan; place in a 450°F (230°C) oven. Depending on bone thickness, roasting should take about 20 minutes. You're looking for loose and giving marrow, but marrow that's not yet melted away.
2. Prepare the parsley salad: While bones are roasting, lightly chop the parsley and mix it with the shallots and capers. Just before serving, dress salad with the olive oil and lemon juice; salt and pepper to taste.
3. Serve the dish: Don't completely season this dish before serving; let the diner do the last-minute seasoning. To eat, scrape the marrow from the bone onto the toast; season it with coarse sea salt. Place a pinch of parsley salad on top; eat immediately.
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9 Comments:
I like to put the bones on slices of baguette before putting them in the oven, this way the bread toasts in and soaks up the fat that drizzles out of the bones.
seyo at 4:03PM on 03/10/08
Is the resulting toast good? Or is it just greasy? If this trick works it would solve one of my longstanding problems with marrow.
annien at 5:21PM on 03/10/08
The resulting toast is awesome. The only thing is to be sure not to over toast it.
seyo at 5:27PM on 03/10/08
(I also recommend lightly rubbing the bread with some garlic.)
seyo at 5:41PM on 03/10/08
ok - possibly this is stupid question: what does bone marrow taste like?
queenkv at 7:18AM on 03/11/08
queenkv: I was lucky enough to eat this at The Spotted Pig in New York when Fergus himself was helming the kitchen. It tastes amazing. It has the appearance of pure gelatinous fat, but instead it's firmer, quite earthy, meaty, I would almost say mushroomy or fungal.
Blake Royer at 10:39AM on 03/11/08
The taste of bone marrow is as much about the texture as the flavour. The texture is unctuous and not dissimilar to a soft scrambled egg with the melt in the mouth that you get from foie gras that has been pan fried.
The flavour is rich and reminds me of perfect egg yolks accessed via toasted buttered soldiers. With a meatiness and depth of flavour you get from the fat from round a well seared sirloin.
I use regular beef shin bones from the butcher - they pretty much give them away in the UK.
A real treat on toast with good flaky salt and perhaps a little chopped parsley and capers – My advice is to avoid the shallots/onions I think they hide the marrow flavour too much.
pmayer at 9:00AM on 02/13/09
I have been wanting to try this recipe for a while now but I first wanted to know a few things like where to get it? Would the butcher's at Whole Food be able to get it for me or is this more of a specialty butcher's item? Also how do I know I am getting good quality or fresh bone marrow? Also are there any preparation tips (or variations) one could give me that may not be dispelled in the recipe? Thanks!
SonSwan1 at 1:49PM on 03/19/09
Should I avoid bone marrow that has been previously frozen?
SonSwan1 at 2:04PM on 03/19/09