VEG BOX BLITZ

HAM HOCK FIRE POT with HERBY DUMPLINGS and GREENS.
TOTAL COST approximately £4.00 for 4

Smoked Ham Hocks were a complete culinary secret when I started buying them five years ago, but as with many forgotten cuts of meat, Ham Hocks are now increasingly available and are gloriously cheap.
A large Hock will cost you around £2.50-£3.00 from a good butcher. They come smoked or not. For this dish you will want a smoked hock.

You will use about half of the meat from this hock so at the end of the post I have added a couple more suggestions for using up the rest of the ham.


I use a Spanish terracotta stove pot for cooking this dish (I got mine from TK MAX for £4.99) as it adds a very romantic, rustic feel to the dish and glams it up into peasant chic. I always like to fantasise that I'm cooking this dish in some kind of national adversity and the hubby and I are young resistance fighters. This fantasy isn't compulsory but it somehow adds an enriching seasoning to the dish. You can use any heavy based stove top casserole dishes.

PREPARATION


Soak the hock over night in a bowl of cold water to extract some of the salts from the meat.
Oven Roast the hock on a low heat for around 2 -3 hrs (dependent on size - save fuel money by slinging it in with your Sunday Roast)

Remove the hock and cut away the hard rind. You'll see that the hock has lots of fat. The idea is that you extract the lovely, salty ham away from the fat - it's not a waste, it's hidden gems - and the closer you get to the bone, the larger pieces of ham you can cut out.
From one hock you'll easily fill a medium sized bowl. (If you wish to be particularly fugal you can sling the bone and the remaining attached meat into a large stock pot with some potatoes, onions and butternut squash, cook it down for about 30 mins and make a glorious ham and butternut squash soup)

You will only use about half of the meat. Put the other half aside in the fridge to make a carbonara later in the week or bag up and freeze for it to use in the future.




RAID THE VEG BOX: You're looking for some root vegetables (sweet potatoes, butternut squash, swede, turnip, parsnip, potatoes, carrots and some soft flavour veg i.e. leeks, onions, shallots, fennel, celery, peppers) AVOID beetroots as they make this dish go a very crazy colour. Total cost of veg approx £2.00

Dice all the vegetables into tiny little squares of the same size, about 1x1 cm. This is a process that is best done with your favourite album playing (it will probably take most of it) and a glass of wine on the go as it is a little monotonous - although strangely satisfying.





START COOKING:

Generous glug of olive oil into the stove pot or heavy based casserole dish and add the onions, celery, garlic and cook down gently until soft. Pile in the other vegetables and stir until they've changed state (i.e. they've gone all loose and slightly soft around the edges) Throw in four big handfuls of the salty ham cubes and stir. Add a glass of white wine and cook off for about four mins. Grind in lots of black pepper BUT DO NOT ADD ANY MORE SALT - there is enough in the ham.


Open a tin of small brown lentils (Another Lidl special), drain add and stir in.

Lightly sprinkle over the mix some chicken stock, either cube, powder or gravy granules and fill until covered with water. Cook down on a low heat until sauce thickened which will be around 20-30 mins. Stir.

Whilst it is cooking down, make your herby dumplings. I make mine from a packet mix because quite frankly life is too short and you've put enough love into this dish already. I always add black pepper and dried sage / oregano to my dumpling mix just to jolly them up.

Place your dumplings into the steamy mix and balance a pan lid on top for 15-20 mins until the dumplings have expanded and changed state. Remove from stove top and bung under the grill for 10 mins until dumplings have gone golden brown and a skin has formed on the hotpot.

Serve in bowls with a dollop of buttered green cabbage / kale / chard / spinach and a good,  heavy country wine such as a Red Bordeaux.

Turn out the lights and stick a candle into a wine bottle - Remember the times of national adversity fantasy! If you want to go the full hog you can eat it whilst sitting on upturned wooden crates and with just a spoon. BTW a spoon is the only cutlery needed for this dish regardless of other props!

EXTRAS: What to do with the remaining ham from the hock - make your £2.50 stretch further. 

Spaghetti Carbonara. Traditional Carbonara is not cooked with cream but by adding eggs. 

1. Sweat some onions and garlic down in a frying pan. Add a couple of handfuls of the diced ham and warm through. 
2. Drain the cooked spaghetti and add to the frying pan stir through so that the onions, ham and garlic are mixed evenly through. 
3. Crack two eggs. Remove the white from one so that you have 2 x yolks and 1x white. Pour over the spaghetti and stir vigorously until the egg is creamily distributed throughout the pasta. Add a handful of grated cheese and serve. 

Smoked Ham and Butternut Squash Soup.

1. Sweat off some onions and garlic in a heavy based sauce pan. 
2. Put in the ham hock bone and the cubed butternut squash + 1 large cubed potato.
3. Fill the pan with water and a chicken stock cube (if you can, get the reduced salt ones as there is already quite a lot of salt in the ham)
4. Grind in a load of black pepper and add some thyme sprigs. 
5. Cook down for around 30 mins. Remove the bone and strip the ham from the bone. It will just sort of fall off. 
6. Place into a blender and pulse so that it is not completely smooth. Serve with part-baked baguettes. 

Smoked Ham and Borlotti Bean Soup. 

1. Sweat off generous amount of onions and garlic in a heavy based sauce pan. 
2. Put in the ham hock bone. 
3. Add a tin of tomatoes and a handful of chopped herbs (any from the Italian family)
4. Add a splash of balsamic vinegar
5. Cook down for around 20-30 mins on low heat. 
6. Remove bone and strip meat into sauce. 
7. Snap a handful of spaghetti strands into small pieces and add to the soup. 
8. Open and drain a tin of borlotti beans and add to the soup. Cook for a further 15-20mins on a low heat.
9. Using a pototo masher press down on the soup so that the beans are crushed and the soup thickened.  Serve with foccacia bread.