Afternoon Snack: Bone Marrow on Toast

I just had the most delicious, satisfying and let's face it, PRIMAL snack this afternoon - bone marrow on toast. I knew as I was eating it that I would be upset when I finished it, desperate to rewind and start my snack over. You see, the snack took me back to February, to a wonderful lunch at St. John in London, a beloved restaurant headed by beloved chef Fergus Henderson of Nose to Tail Eating fame.

We had an amazing meal there launched by two pints of smocked bock from Meantime Brewing and then we feasted on briny Colchester oysters, a salsify, leek and watercress salad, a pork terrine with rabbit, duck tongue and pheasant offal served with a pile of small cornichons, snails with chickpeas and chorizo in broth, and then, we had the show stopper. We had the roasted bone marrow and parsley salad - The bones were served sitting upright like cylinders and we were given these awesome long scoops to reach in and get the bone marrow out. Sea salt was piled up next to the bones, and beside that were two slices of toast and a parsley salad with shaved shallots and capers. I spread the bone marrow on the toast, sprinkled it with sea salt and piled on the parsley salad. The salt and capers brought the flavor of the marrow to levels of the sublime and the parsley salad refreshed the palate and cut through the richness just as it should. I loved having to assemble each bite and I fondly recall noticing a family with young children sitting nearby, with a young boy enjoying the same dish, not squeamish at all, simply enjoying his meal, sure to scoop out every last bit of the bone marrow.

The meal as a whole is a great memory and I haven't been able to forget the flavors I was introduced to at that table, particularly those of the roasted bone marrow and parsley salad. And so, today, after simmering marrow bones overnight to make stock, I got the bright idea to bring those flavors back together for an afternoon snack. I fished out the bones, scooped out the marrow, put it on toast, sprinkled on sea salt, and then mixed a quick salad of parsley leaves, capers, lemon juice and olive oil and put it on top. I was instantly transported to the bright, airy dining room of St. John, the flavors were right there, this time on my tongue instead of stored away in a memory. I highly suggest you try it yourself...

What's in season now? WINTER EDITION - plus a very handy gardening tip.

A couple of weeks ago I took a pitchfork out to the garden and looked with pride at all the celeriac, rutabagas, turnips, beets, radishes, parsnips and carrots we had grown, their leafy tops looking somewhat worse for wear in the cold weather but otherwise they were pretty impressive. And then I stuck the pitchfork in the ground next to the turnips and the pitchfork refused to go into the soil, and even after putting all my weight on the pitchfork, nothing happened! Had I missed my window? Had the ground frozen solid and would it take all our root vegetables as hostages into the frigid, dark New Jersey winter? I felt a little surge of panic - the celeriac seemed like the biggest potential loss, we had 27 of them in the ground, all of which I started as tiny seeds back in early March - to not be able to taste them and eat them all winter would be catastrophic! I took a deep breath, angled the pitchfork so just one tine would have contact with the ground and then I put all of my weight on it - the ground mercifully gave way, and I was able to get some leverage and break off a big chunk of earth. With it came a few turnips. A couple of hours of unnecessarily difficult labor ensued and finally all of our winter root vegetables had been freed of the frozen ground. I learned a critical lesson that day - harvest your root vegetables before the ground freezes!

On that note, here's a handy guide for what's in season right now as we head into winter - it's a mix of great storage crops and fresh greens and herbs: celeriac (celery root), rutabagas (swedes), turnips, beets, radishes, parsnips, carrots, dried beans, grains, potatoes, winter squash, sweet potatoes, onions, garlic, arugula, kale, escarole, lettuces, mustard greens, mâche, brussels sprouts, fennel, kohlrabi, cabbage, parsley, cilantro, rosemary, thyme and sage.

You might be surprised to read that greens and herbs are in season but protected in the garden by row covers or cold frames, they will continue to yield. The winter greens are delicate and tender and smaller in size than their summer counterparts, but they are extremely delicious and the novelty of going outside to a frozen and seemingly dead garden and returning with fresh, alive greens and herbs for a meal is considerable! Don't underestimate too the value of having a few pots indoors on the window ledge - we have rosemary, mint, cilantro and watercress all growing right here in the kitchen!

Our plan this winter is to make lots of stews, soups and braised joints of meat that are slow cooked so that the meat falls right off the bone. Add lots of these great winter vegetables and we have some stellar meals that await. So, bring on winter! We've got plenty of delicious things to eat.

Thanksgiving Wrap-up

Thanksgiving already feels like a distant memory but the contents of my fridge tell a different story. As Wednesday rolled around and my kitchen was still overflowing with the remnants of our holiday meal (and my tolerance for more turkey and brussels sprouts was rapidly dwindling), I set to work transforming them: leftover-cranberry-sauce muffins, white beans simmered with the ham bone, turkey stock. My favorite creation was a catchall soup that is perfect for stretching (or gobbling up) the last remnants of meat, using up whatever odds and ends are left lying around and extracting the wealth of flavor residing in the scraps of turkey and ham still haunting your fridge.

The basis for this soup is a few onions, cooked down until golden and richly flavored plus some garlic and a cup or so of lentils and rice. From there, you can play with whatever is left in your fridge, enriching it with a bit of wine, stock, vegetables, scraps of meat and/or bones and herbs. You could go out and buy the necessary ingredients – this soup is tasty enough to be worth it – but if you just treat the recipe as a guideline and put the contents of your kitchen to work, you can create a big, hearty pot of soup for practically pennies.

Thanksgiving Leftovers Lentil Soup

Olive oil/butter/pork fat – a few tablespoons of any one or a combination

2 large yellow onions, diced

1 carrot, diced, if available

1-2 stalks of celery, diced, if available

3 cloves of garlic, minced

½ tsp cumin seed (or ¼ tsp ground cumin)

White wine (or red wine or beer or water)

16 oz canned tomatoes, chopped (or 2-3 Tbsp tomato paste)

2 quarts stock (I used 1 each of chicken and veggie, as it’s what I had leftover but any type of stock would be fine. This is a great place to put your turkey carcass to use – make stock from it and use that here. And if all you have is water, that’s okay too, because the turkey and/or ham bones will add plenty of flavor to the broth)

1 cup dried lentils (green or brown, or whatever you have)

Fresh thyme – a few sprigs

1 bay leaf

Parmesan rind, if available

Turkey wings and/or drumstick(s)

Ham bone and/or ends (My family always has a smoked ham on Thanksgiving in addition to the turkey, so I used the end scraps that didn’t have enough meat on them to slice and put out with the rest of the meal. If you don’t have any smoked ham on hand, lightly sauté a half pound of cut-up bacon with the onions in the beginning – the smokiness is a nice addition to the soup’s flavors)

½ - ¾ cup of rice (I used brown but whatever you have is fine. Just keep in mind that white will take less time to cook)

1 bunch greens, if available

Salt to taste

Juice of 1 lemon or a few tablespoons of vinegar

Procedure:

In a large, heavy-bottomed stockpot, heat fat over medium heat and sauté onions (and carrots and celery, if you have them) until well colored – 10+ minutes. Season with salt.

Add garlic and sauté a few minutes more.

Stir in cumin and cook for another minute.

Deglaze with a bit of wine, water, etc. and cook down until almost dry.

Add tomatoes with their liquid, stock, lentils, thyme, bay leaf and parmesan rind. If using tomato paste, you’ll want to add it just after the cumin and cook it for a few minutes before deglazing in order to remove the raw tomato flavor.

Once the liquid and lentils are in the pot, bring it up to a boil and then lower the heat and simmer for a few minutes.

Add the turkey and ham pieces plus the rice (if using white rice, you may want to wait 20-30 minutes as it cooks more quickly than brown rice).

Simmer, partially covered, until the lentils and rice are cooked through and tender, about an hour. If using greens, add them during the last 15 minutes or so and make sure that they, too, are tender. You could also use leftover cooked greens – simply add them at the very end so they have a chance to reheat.

Remove the turkey and ham from the soup. Tear up the meat, disposing of any skin and bones, and return the meat to the soup.

Adjust seasoning with salt to taste and finish with lemon juice or vinegar. Be careful with the acid -- you don’t want to taste it, but the addition should help brighten and pop all of the other flavors in the soup.