Meat Ferrero Rocher - Beef Shin Kroketten

Ok so I've possibly taken a bit of inspiration from a few places for this recipe but I've been wanting to try and make something like this for a while.  You could probably file this recipe under excessive but if you like beef and you like deep fried things I think it’ll be worth it.

This dish will be won or lost on the quality of your beef stock; some salty old oxo cube bollocks isn’t going to cut it here basically.  If you don’t want to make your own buy a few litres from a shop and reduce it down yourself to save time just make sure it doesn't have added salt.

Before I start I will add that I only used beef shin because of the marrow.  If you wanted to use short rib which would work just as well then do it.

Just make sure you get a big old marrow bone to throw in the initial stage of cooking or alternatively roast some marrow bones and scrape in the wibbly goodness when you make the roux...

Dust the beef with flour then colour it and soften the onions with a knob of butter.  Pour in half your reduced stock, cover with a cartouche to avoid over reduction of the liquid early on, and cook the shit out of it till the meat is literally falling apart.

The gravy will be heavily reduced by the end, ideally no more than 100ml, as you can see from the photo but just keep on eye on it to avoid it catching and add a splash of water if it goes too far.  Shred the beef into lots of little pieces and then chop it up some more for good measure.

In a fresh pan put the 65g of butter and allow it to brown on the heat before making a roux with the flour.  You need to really make sure you've cooked out the roux otherwise the balls will taste of flour later on.

Throw in the rest of the stock, the chopped and shredded meat and the heavily reduced jus you got from cooking the beef.  Cook the roux out till it’s nicely thickened; when done allow it cool, pop it in the fridge to set, and leave it alone for a few hours.

Ball up the mixture, flour it, egg it, crumb it, and you are ready for the fryer.  They only take a couple of minutes to cook in hot oil so don’t go too far.

Serve hot with some Dijon mustard to dip your balls in.  If all goes well you’ll have a crispy crumb outside and a beefy molten core to BOSH in your gravy hole.

Recipe for approx 24 balls:

500g Beef Shin with Marrow Bone in or similar amount of Short Rib and Marrow bone separately.

1 Onion

65g Flour

65g Butter plus a knob to brown the meat and cook the onions.

900ml of heavily reduced beef stock.

Panko Bread Crumbs/Egg/Flour for the coating.

Seasoning.

Oil for deep frying.