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.