Ham hock revisited

After cutting most of the meat off for the linguine dish I spent a few minutes picking off rest of meat. Quite a large handful of bits were left.

Usually Friday is pizza day but just lately it's been a bit 50/50 and after a week of feeling yuck just really couldn't be bothered. So opened the fridge and there's the ham and a small chunk of cheese left, tomatoes and a cucumber. Foraging in freezer found oven chips so add some eggs and we have an omelette and a meal kids loved and more importantly a quick, easy tasty meal.

All I did was crack 6 eggs in a bowl, add the finally chopped ham and the cheese in sort of flat slithers and seasoned with pepper. Fried off gently in butter and finished under the grill. Not the gourmet 'proper' way of doing omelette but how kids like it.

So to date one ham hock has given 6 portions of food :-) and stock still to use.

Ham hock

This may not look an exciting bowl of pasta but it what it made up for in appearances it made up for in taste. 

As I was saying in my last post it started with a smoked ham hock.  I took inspiration from a ginger pig recipe and in true Jules style didn't have half the ingredients in the book as couldn't remember where I saw the recipe until after I had been to shop and realised I had creme fraiche but not marscapone. Or parsley to finely chop etc so here is what I did in the end. 

I took the ham hock covered in cold water and brought up to the boil and then simmered for an hour. Took it out of the water to cool and kept the water as stock for a soup ( another meal to come) While the ham started to cool I put on a pan of water and started to cook some linguine  Then as this was cooking removed and discarded the skin off the ham ( cat ate it) and shredded most of the meat and cut into smallish chunks.

I found some dried parsley left over from making my spaghetti spice and put a good heaped tablespoon in a small amount of boiing water to try and bring it to life a bit.  I had a 1/3 tub of low fat creme fraiche and into that I added a small spoon of Dijon mustard and the parsley with the water and put it to one side.  When the pasta was cooked I drained quickly and put back in pot with creme fraiche, shredded ham and good grind of pepper. I needed a little reserved pasta water I saved out of habit to loosen it slightly.  It was just a little bland and we solved that with the tiniest grating of Parmesan cheese. All in all was a nice meal that was made up with things I had open or needed using up.  Both Luke 10 and Ever 19 months ate this and making the right noises so a hit. 

I have a little ham left and the stock from simmering the hock still so there will be a bit more to this story soon. And all from a £1 ham hock.  So far it's given 3 servings. 

New beginnings

Well not yet but soon in a month or 3 (who knows really) I will be having a new kitchen and bathroom fitted. 10 days of absolute chaos promise to be given to me. So I'm left with the joy of going through my cupboards etc and a chance to sort out what is essential and what needs to be given to a new home.

Meanwhile I have decided that I need to start using the food I have squirrelled away in the cupboards and freezer etc. I grew up in a family where money was always short but the food was always good. Very lucky on that score. But it does teach you to have lots on hand for hard lean times. So I have decided to save my money and use these things up and see if I can find some new recipes or ideas for old favourites.

As I was rummaging today I was almost praying there wasn't a tin of steak pie filling in my cupboards. My great aunt used to give them to me. Luckily there wasn't. I'm not fussy food wise but those tins of steak and gravy never tasted or felt right in my mouth and still to this day gross me out. Start me off with a lb of steak any day!

Today though I raided the freezer for a smoked ham hock that was on offer at the butchers not to long ago :-) so I will let you know how that goes later

Posts could get a bit strange cooking wise as I do want to explore more outside my normal comfort zone.

Meanwhile, why not have a rummage in the back of your cupboards or deep freeze and see what you have to use that you forgot you had? You might be pleasantly surprised.

Parsnips and chorizo

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This may not look like the most wonderful side dish going but it certainly tasted good. I was going through Stephane Raynauds book 365 reasons to sit down and eat. Rediscovered this book again and decided to flick through.  Parsnips and chorizo not an obvious pairing but they work well. 

Started off peeling 2 parsnips into chips. Slicing half an onion and put  them on a low heat to saute for 15 minutes with a generous splash of olive oil, Stir occasionally and by the end half they will have picked up some colouring be slightly crispy in places but mostly sweet and soft and somehow mellowed.  Then add a fair chunk of your chorizo sausage, I used the cured one, and cut it into chip shapes but finer than the parsnips and saute them all together for another 5 minutes.  No additional seasoning needs to be added. 

Pretty simple and basic skills needed recipe which I scaled down to be suitable for 2 people.Not an OMG amazing but it did add a lovely pizzazz to pork chops and different to plain boring veg 

Achievement

Last year I started listening to audiobooks to help practice my listening skills. Today I realised and caught it on time to take a screen shot. I've listened to 3 days worth of audiobooks. Never dreamt in my deaf days this would ever be possible but here we are and I'm beaming with happiness.

Morning view

Usually I don't open my curtains until I am leaving the house as I am not a morning person at all. But this morning I saw a splash of colour through a chunk of the curtains and curiosity got the better of me and I opened my front door wide to be greeted by this spectacular view . I think it's time to keep a closer eye on the skies in the morning as this really lifted my morning mood and somehow filled me with hope :)

Chocolate chip cookies

I might be on a healthy eating kick but I still feel the need to bake and have things on hand for the kids to have as after dinner treats etc and chocolate chip cookies always go down well with most people'. 

So I started with the oven at gas mark 3 and 2 greased large baking sheets 

170 g melted butter

200 g light brown sugar

100 g caster sugar

 1 tsp vanilla extract

1 egg and 1 yolk

250 g plain flour

150 g chopped dark chocolate

50 g chopped white chocolate

first thing first the 2 sugars and melted butter were beat together until smoothly combined and colour became really pale. The eggs and extract were added next and beat until well combined . 

the flour was achieved in and folded into the sugar/egg mix and then the chocolate. 

Then came my new gadget the meatball maker . this dough was quite wet and sticky compared to meatballs but the dough did come out with only a little encouragement and even sized cookies are always good . placed the balls on buttered baking sheets and in the oven for around 10 minutes and left on the sheets for a couple of minutes to firm up a little first

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these came out crispy outsiders and a just soft and slightly chewy centres. definitely a try again and I got 23 cookies out of this . Would of been 24 but let older son sample a dough ball. 

Little secret here . As I have to shop on a budget I don't buy chocolate chips or expensive chocolate very often . I buy the stores own labelled bargain chocolate and chop to size . Usually 30-35 pence a bar and no Ono's noticed or complained get . just have to make sure it's not that horrible cake covering chocolate they sell in the baking aisle .