HOW TO . . .

COOK WITH BONE MARROW

RICH and decadent, bone marrow has been described as ‘God’s butter’ and is popping up on restaurant menus with more regularity. Today, DAVID KIERNAN from Irish food blog kitchen72. com shows you how to cook with bone marrow at home, and tells you why you should it eat more often. HISTORICALLY Irish cooking was considered a peasant cuisine and it was said that every part of the cow was eaten except the ‘moo’. These days, we’ve become more accustomed to buying our meat pre-packed, which means we miss out on treats like bone marrow. I remember as a child sitting on a rickety chair in the kitchen, intensely trying to suck the marrow out of bones. The slippery marrow was always a treat, savoured until the very last. Eating bone marrow is a recent food trend in fine dining restaurants and is as much about respecting the animal that was slaughtered (called ‘head to tail’ eating) as about revisiting forgotten techniques. Although, for me, the most important reason is the taste — bone marrow is delicious, nutritious and under-appreciated. It has a subtle, creamy nuttiness and is sometimes a little sweet, but always very rich and unctuous. And there is more to marrow than just fat — it is dense in monounsaturated fat, which helps lower cholesterol and is imbued with vitamins and minerals. Marrow bones can be used to make stock and cooked marrow can be whisked into soups, risottos or sauces to enrich them and add flavour. I’ve often blended bone marrow with butter and parsley, rolled into some cling film and cut into discs to melt onto steak or into a pasta dish. Another of my favourites is to cook the marrow, remove it from the bone and let it cool again so it hardens up. Roll the chilled marrow in some flour and shallow fry in a pan until it’s crisp on the outside and melted on the inside. However, my favourite way of enjoying it is the simplest: roasted and spread onto some toasted bread with a sprinkling of sea salt and served with a sharp parsley and shallot salad. When shopping for bones talk to your local butcher in advance as he may have to order them in. Ask for a centrepiece of shin, ideally from a grass-fed cow. The centre-cut bones should cost no more than 50c per piece and will be about two inches in height. 1. Preheat your oven to 200C, and line the bottom of your roasting tray with some tin foil. Put the bones onto the tin foil, standing up with the thick end of the bone on the bottom, so they’re more stable. After about 15 minutes the marrow should be slightly bubbling and have come away from the edges a little. Thicker bones will take a little longer, so keep an eye on them. 2. While the bones are roasting you can make the dressing. Strip the leaves from a bunch of parsley, using about half the leaves from a supermarket herb pot. Thinly slice two shallots or half a mild small red onion and mix with the parsley into a bowl. Whisk in two tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil and one tablespoon of lemon juice. Add a teaspoon of rinsed capers and half a teaspoon of Dijon mustard. Mix all the ingredients together until well combined. 3. Put the bones, parsley salad and some toast on to a large plate. To serve, scoop out the marrow and spread on the toast. Sprinkle with some sea salt and top with the salad.

Bone marrow constitutes 4 per cent

of the body mass of humans and produces about 500 billion blood cells

per day