Stuffed Marrow
I remember as a child stuffed marrow was quite a popular family meal, it is certainly something that
I cooked for my father over 40 years ago, and he enjoyed, but it had fallen out of my repertoire over
the years.
Yesterday I received some homegrown tomatoes and marrow from my niece, and as I had minced
beef in the freezer, I decided to make stuff marrow after all these years however I have somewhat
updated my grandmother’s recipe which I believe had come out of the original Mrs. Beaton’s
cookbook!
Ingredients
1 marrow, or 3 large zucchinis
1 large onion very finely chopped.
3 cloves of garlic chopped.
1 sweet red pepper, diced.
4 large tomatoes diced.
1 kilo good quality minced beef
1 cup of chopped coriander you can substitute this with fresh flat leaf parsley if you are someone
that doesn't like coriander.
½ a cup of breadcrumbs you can make fresh breadcrumbs gluten free breadcrumbs or ready-made
breadcrumbs
A sprig of fresh thyme
2 Bay leaves
1 teaspoon of sea salt
1 teaspoon of freshly ground pepper
1 teaspoon of paprika
1/2 teaspoon chopped chilli (optional)
1 teaspoon of unsweetened cocoa powder
a pinch of cinnamon
½ a litre of beef chicken or vegetable stock.
One tablespoon of good quality oil
2 tablespoons grated vegan cheese (optional)
Method
Wash the marrow, pat it dry with kitchen towel end cut it length ways. Scoop out all the seeds with a
spoon to make a well in the middle. Preheat your oven 200 C 180 for a fan oven Gas mark 6.
Heat the oil in in a large frying pan, then reduce the heat cook the onions, red pepper, and garlic
together until the onions are translucent, and the pepper soft then add the mince beef breaking itup slightly with the back of a spoon ,add the thyme, paprika, cocoa powder, bay leaves, salt, pepper, chilli, and cinnamon mixed together until the meat has got slightly brown the coco and cinnamon intensify the beef flavour and make so much difference , so don’t be tempted to leave them out !~
Add the tomatoes and coriander cook for a further 2 to 3 minutes before adding your stock, then cook for another 7 to 10 minutes on a low heat.
Place the marrow halves in an oven dish, you might have to slightly shave the bottom of the marrow with a potato peeler, so it stays upright.
Put the meat mixture into the marrow generously you can pile it up mix the vegan cheese and the breadcrumbs together and sprinkle on top of the meat, then place marrow in the oven and bake for approximately 40 minutes.
To serve, cut each marrow half into large slices some people serve stuffed marrow on a bed of white rice, however I find that far to filling, and tonight will serve with home grown runner beans from another friend’s garden.