If there was an ‘Extreme Makeover’ programme for vegetables, the marrow would be a perfect candidate. This time I tried to overwhelm the marrow with the flavour of roasted garlic. The recipe would also work well if you combined aubergine chunks with the marrow. And as M from the Stripey Cat blog said, you can use this roasted marrow as a base for a great soup. Freddie gave it 6 out of 10, loved the taste but again thought the texture of marrow was unappealing. The rest of us loved it.
Roasted Garlic and Herb Marrow
Serves 4 as a side dish
1 marrow
3 tbsp olive oil
1 roasted garlic bulb
1 teaspoon of dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
Sea salt to season
Ground pepper
Cut off the marrow stalk. Wash and dry the marrow. Chop into 2 inch cubes. Place in a bowl with the oil, balsamic vinegar, herbs and a pinch of sea salt. Mix around. Squeeze out all the soft garlic from the bulb and add, mixing it thoroughly to make sure the marrow chunks are well covered. Add a twist of ground pepper. Leave to marinade for an hour.
Preheat the oven to 180C and lightly grease a baking tray. Spread out the marrow chunks evenly across the tray and put in the oven to bake for about 25-30 minutes. Half way through the cooking time, turn the chunks around with a spoon. The marrow will be very soft and golden brown when ready.
Well done Charlotte for giving the marrow the Trinny and Susannah treatment. When faced with a glut of veg from the garden I always turn to my well thumbed copy of Jane Grigson's Vegetable Book. What advice would she have for making wonderful dishes from the "vegetable marrow" ?
ReplyDeleteHer opening words are: "The Bunter of the vegetable garden has little to be said for it. Some cookery writers define its flavour as 'delicate'. This carries politeness too far." ... say no more! Charlotte, you've done wonders with this overweight veg, even the great Mrs Grigson couldn't have done better.
Celia
Hi Charlotte
ReplyDeleteAre you getting my emails? Let me know if you are going to use the marrow recipe I mailed over or not. If not, I will be doing it soon anyway.
Thanks
David
This looks fantastic, Charlotte! We don't get them here, but there's something so Beatrix Potter about marrows to me. Very comforting, and I love the dried herbs with this.
ReplyDeleteIndeed...they are a bit Beatrix Potter. You can also use this as a base for a good soup. just puree it with some stock and maybe a potatoe or two thrown in - delicious.
ReplyDeleteWOW! Just WOW! I LOVE LOVE LOVE this blog!
ReplyDeleteI'm a vegan, a Mom and a teacher and this appeals to all those aspects of my life. I often do "cooking alphabet" activities with my students where we find recipes that correspond to the "Letter of the week"...
I AM LOVING THIS!
OK, now, I'm in the US, so I have to admit I don't know what a marrow is but it appears to be a squash-type thing? But it's different than a zucchini/courgette I assume?
I read exerpts to my 7-year-old and she LOVES the idea... we'll be following along closely!
A valiant effort - it looked great to us. But we wonder if anyone could transform marrow into a dish that Freddie would score as 10?
ReplyDeleteTopVeg
This looks even better than the stuffed marrow.
ReplyDeleteThey look delicious and I'll have to try out the recipe because I've never actually eaten marrow before.
ReplyDeleteThta would make a good soup, wouldn't it! And you get the extra flavor from the roasting first. Thanks for the tip!
ReplyDeleteHi Charlotte
ReplyDeleteThe marrow recipe I suggested is on the Blog! Give it a go.
All the best
David
Where does the word "marrow" come from, do you suppose?
ReplyDeleteOver here we call is "squash," and I'm starting a collection of recipes for that time in the summer when everyone is trying to figure out what to do with all their "squash." So thanks, Charlotte, for another good one.
Hi GBVC
ReplyDeleteA quick update on the mass tasting of lettuce. In the last two weeks we have had 31 votes. The poll is in the left hand margin of topveg.com - so please encourage those who have not voted to have their say.
Thanks
TopVeg
Tofu Mum - thank you for your comments. Do keep visiting. The marrow in the UK is basically a huge overgrown (neglected) courgette or zucchini as you say in the US. GBVC
ReplyDeleteMy mum still believes that 'the bigger the vegetables, the better they are', so she gave me a huge overgrown yellow zucchini today. Whereas I prefer my zucchini young & slim, I'll be roasting the marrow following your instructions later today.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the recipe!