Marrowbone, Caramelized Onions, and Chimichurri

As I’ve mentioned before, I am a huge fan of Vinny Dotolo and Jon Shook, the chefs at Animal in Los Angeles. They showed me that not only do I love pork, I love the bits of pork I never even considered. Their Fried Pig Ears with Chili-Lime Vinaigrette rocked my world.

I was thrilled when I bought the Made in America: Our Best Chefs Reinvent Comfort Food cookbook last month (by Lucy Lean) to find they had contributed another bit of unexpected deliciousness to the mix. Bone Marrow, anyone?

I never knew how much I loved bone marrow until the first time I tried it while staging at the Herbfarm in Woodinville. One of the chefs made French Dips for family meal one night, served with fried bone marrow chips. They were orgasmic. Since then I’ve been a bone marrow pig. (I don’t know why it’s so hard to diet in this house.)

This recipe isn’t very complicated, but does involve some work a day ahead to get the marrow ready. Not a ton of work—you just need to salt them overnight. Calm down. We always have caramelized onions in the fridge (see above regarding difficulty dieting), so the actual assembly is pretty quick.

In my last post I talked about my fun day last month with Matt Wright, working on food styling and photography. This was one of the four dishes we prepared and it was the unexpected surprise in the mix. It is absolutely, spectacularly delicious. Creamy, beefy marrow with sweet caramelized onions and zingy chimichurri. How could you not love this? Well, unless you're vegetarian. Or vegan. Or stupid.

This cookbook already contains many anal-retentively filed bookmarks and references for me to come back and try other recipes. Usually, a cookbook needs 3 or 4 good recipes for me to buy it. Made in America far surpasses that. I’m always rambling on about not dumbing down restaurant recipes. This one doesn’t. It’s the real deal.

I hope you enjoy this as much as we did. 

Marrowbone, Caramelized Onions, and Chimichurri

Adapted from Vinny Dotolo and Jon Shook of Animal, Los Angeles

Ingredients:

Marrowbones:

3 center-cut veal marrowbones, 6 inches long, split down the middle (6 halves)

NOTE FROM MARC: My butcher was not able to cut the bones when I came in, so I bought bones cut vertically. They still worked as intended so don’t get too hung up on the size. (Mark this date as the first time those words have come out of my mouth)

Chimichurri Sauce:

1 cup finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

1/3 cup finely chopped fresh oregano

1 whole jalapeno (leave some seed and membrane for heat), worked to a paste

¾ cup distilled vinegar

7 cloves garlic, worked to a paste

1 tablespoon hot red pepper flakes

¾ cup extra virgin olive oil or grapeseed oil

Salt

Caramelized Onions:

1 ½ tablespoons grapeseed oil

2 small diced white onions

To Serve:

Chimichurri Sauce

4 tablespoons Caramelized Onions

6 pieces Marrowbone

6 slices pain de mie or good quality white bread (NOTE FROM MARC: As always, you can make this gluten free by omitting the bread and replacing it with a large piece of tree bark)

2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) unsalted butter

Serves 6

To Prepare the Marrowbones:

1. Heavily salt the marrowbones the day before and refrigerate for about 20 hours.
2. The next day, preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
3. Wash off the marrowbones and pat dry.
4. Place the marrowbone, uncovered and face up, on a sheet pan. Transfer to the oven for 4 to 6 minutes, depending on the size, until the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees Farenheit all the way through.

To Make the Chimichurri Sauce:

Combine all the ingredients in a nonreactive bowl, and set aside.

To Make the Onions:

Heat a large sauté pan over medium-high heat and add the grapeseed oil; it should slide across the pan with ease. Add the onions. Cook, stirring, for about 5 minutes until the onions start to become translucent. Reduce the heat to medium-low and continue to cook until the onions are deeply caramelized, about 30 minutes.. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature. Use immediately or refrigerate.

To Assemble and Serve:

1. Heat the caramelized onions in a pan until hot.
2. Meanwhile, cut six 2-inch slices of pain de mie (or bark), butter both sides of the slices, and toast in a pan over medium heat. Remove the marrowbones and divide among six plates. Divide the caramelized onions equally among the six marrowbones and spoon on top of each. Spoon some chimichurri sauce on top of the caramelized onions. Cut the toasted pain di mie in half diagonally and place to the side of the marrowbone.