Recipes

Marrow bone canoes & crumbs

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Ingredients

Method

  1. Turn the oven on to 200°C.
  2. Place the fennel seeds into a wide frying pan and toast over a medium heat.
  3. Add the bread crumbs and dry fry until beginning to crisp.
  4. Grate in the lemon zest.
  5. Squeeze over the lemon juice and stir it in.
  6. Evaporate the lemon juice completely. This will leave you with lightly soured crumbs.
  7. Add the oil, capers, chilli flakes, black pepper, and hazelnuts.
  8. Continue to stir constantly until all is very crisp and nicely coloured (this takes care, constant stirring and patience).
  9. Season well with sea salt and then cool.
  10. When cooled, mix through all the fresh herbs.
  11. Place the marrow bone canoes in a tray; if they wobble, steady them with a little scrunched-up tinfoil, and season lightly.
  12. Roast them for 8 minutes.
  13. Remove the marrow bones, and load each canoe heavily with the crumb mix and then return them to the oven for 3 minutes.
  14. Serve with a teaspoon and a lemon wedge.

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Valentine Warner is a chef, food writer, business owner and broadcaster, with a deep interest in nature, travel and provincial food. He describes his cooking style as ‘International Grandmother’ and combines his strong sense of storytelling with his infectious love of cookery. Val has a deep respect and understanding of ingredients, both wild and cultivated, and has the instinctive ability to rustle up hearty and wholesome meals from whatever’s available. Val is an avid proponent of native food sources, and finds common ground with Swaledale in their work to deliver top-notch meat, within a truthful, ethical and high welfare framework. Originally a trained portrait painter, Val has also authored 5 cookbooks, managed his own catering company and is a co-owner of Taqueria, a West London Mexican cafe. Val is also a partner in the Hepple Distillery in Northumberland and Holmen Lofoten hotel on arctic Norway’s Lofoten island.