3 meals for £3
15/06/09 15:38
I bought a cured ham hock at the Chichester’s Farmer’s market. Weighing just over 1kg and costing a little over £3 it has provided us with 3 excellent meals. Firstly, a pot roast of the Mediterranean kind: we’d all think this rustic and glorious on a Tuscan hillside!
Summer Hock
Serves 2-3
Many years ago Summer Hock meant Strawberry Hock, a wonderful dessert wine of crushed berries and white wine, imported by The House of Hallgarten. Regrettably the wine is no longer available and so I have turned to a cured bacon hock for consolation! This is the sort of recipe that you can make with whatever you have to hand. It is perfect food for cold weather in the summer. It celebrates summer produce in a warming sort-of way!
Place a bacon hock in a covered pan into which it fits quite snugly. Peel 6-8 small early season onions, or 10-12 shallots and add them to the pan, whole, with 6-8 peppercorns, a blade of mace and a couple of bay leaves. Cover the hock with water and bring it to the boil. Skim off any scum then cover the pan and simmer slowly for 2-3 hours, or cook in a slow oven at 160℃, 325℉ or in the Simmering Oven of an Aga.
Scrub some salad or new potaoes - I used Maris Peer from Kingley Vale. Add them to the pan and cook for a further 15-20 minutes. Remove the hock, then add a few baby carrots and some shredded greens, cavelo negro or spring cabbage to the pan. Cook for a further 10 minutes. Pull some of the meat from the bones. Season the liquor to taste, then serve the meat and vegetables garnished with freshly chopped parsley or chives with some of the liquor.
Keep everything else for tomorrow... when I made this salad...
Ham and broad bean salad with pesto dressing
This is a truly seasonal way of using up the left-over meat from a cured ham hock. You could use diced ham instead, but try to leave the pieces a bit raggedy in shape, rather than neat geometrical portions, for a much ore rustic effect. The real point of this recipe is the pesto: the ingredients are basil, grated Parmesan, olive oil, pine nuts and garlic. Nothing else. No apple juice, peanuts or parsley. This is classic Pesto Genovese, the delicious sauce of Genoa.
For the pesto:
A large handful of basil leaves - a few stalks are OK, but not too many
40-50g freshly grated Parmesan
40-50g pine nuts
2-3 cloves garlic
about 100ml olive oil
Cooked broad beans
Chunks of ham
Lettuce leaves
The quantities for any part of this recipe are not truly important - I am a firm believer that if you make pesto with the right ingredients it will always be delicious, even if the quantities vary slightly. Taste and texture are subjective - and also sometimes dictated by what you have to hand!
Whizz the pesto ingredients up in a blender to a paste, adding a little salt and extra oil if required. The pesto remaining after the salad can be poured into a warm clean jar, sealed and kept in the fridge for 2-3 weeks.
Prepare the lettuce and arrange on a platter with the ham and beans. I wouldn’t season the ingredients as there is so much flavour buzz in the pesto. Drizzle the pesto over the salad and serve with hunks of bread. Rustic eating at its best.
... and then the left-over liquor and vegetables from the hock became a veggie soup feast the next evening, with a few extras added. The remaining pesto will be used with pasta and vegetable dishes over the next couple of weeks. Not bad for £3, eh?
Summer Hock
Serves 2-3
Many years ago Summer Hock meant Strawberry Hock, a wonderful dessert wine of crushed berries and white wine, imported by The House of Hallgarten. Regrettably the wine is no longer available and so I have turned to a cured bacon hock for consolation! This is the sort of recipe that you can make with whatever you have to hand. It is perfect food for cold weather in the summer. It celebrates summer produce in a warming sort-of way!
Place a bacon hock in a covered pan into which it fits quite snugly. Peel 6-8 small early season onions, or 10-12 shallots and add them to the pan, whole, with 6-8 peppercorns, a blade of mace and a couple of bay leaves. Cover the hock with water and bring it to the boil. Skim off any scum then cover the pan and simmer slowly for 2-3 hours, or cook in a slow oven at 160℃, 325℉ or in the Simmering Oven of an Aga.
Scrub some salad or new potaoes - I used Maris Peer from Kingley Vale. Add them to the pan and cook for a further 15-20 minutes. Remove the hock, then add a few baby carrots and some shredded greens, cavelo negro or spring cabbage to the pan. Cook for a further 10 minutes. Pull some of the meat from the bones. Season the liquor to taste, then serve the meat and vegetables garnished with freshly chopped parsley or chives with some of the liquor.
Keep everything else for tomorrow... when I made this salad...
Ham and broad bean salad with pesto dressing
This is a truly seasonal way of using up the left-over meat from a cured ham hock. You could use diced ham instead, but try to leave the pieces a bit raggedy in shape, rather than neat geometrical portions, for a much ore rustic effect. The real point of this recipe is the pesto: the ingredients are basil, grated Parmesan, olive oil, pine nuts and garlic. Nothing else. No apple juice, peanuts or parsley. This is classic Pesto Genovese, the delicious sauce of Genoa.
For the pesto:
A large handful of basil leaves - a few stalks are OK, but not too many
40-50g freshly grated Parmesan
40-50g pine nuts
2-3 cloves garlic
about 100ml olive oil
Cooked broad beans
Chunks of ham
Lettuce leaves
The quantities for any part of this recipe are not truly important - I am a firm believer that if you make pesto with the right ingredients it will always be delicious, even if the quantities vary slightly. Taste and texture are subjective - and also sometimes dictated by what you have to hand!
Whizz the pesto ingredients up in a blender to a paste, adding a little salt and extra oil if required. The pesto remaining after the salad can be poured into a warm clean jar, sealed and kept in the fridge for 2-3 weeks.
Prepare the lettuce and arrange on a platter with the ham and beans. I wouldn’t season the ingredients as there is so much flavour buzz in the pesto. Drizzle the pesto over the salad and serve with hunks of bread. Rustic eating at its best.
... and then the left-over liquor and vegetables from the hock became a veggie soup feast the next evening, with a few extras added. The remaining pesto will be used with pasta and vegetable dishes over the next couple of weeks. Not bad for £3, eh?