Jellied ham and parsley terrine

The problem with leftovers is that they can easily look like exactly that but this crafty way with cooked ham - an anglicised version of the French jambon persillé - looks like you've made it from scratch*. If you want it to look really fancy you can make it in a loaf tin and unmould it but I reckon that's far too much of a faff at this time of year.

Although I've given quantities you can adjust them depending on how much ham you have over. Or replace some of the ham with cold turkey as per the original recipe in the Frugal Cook book. You may not need all the stock.

Serves 4-6 depending what else you're serving.

450-500g piece of cooked ham
4 tbsp dry white wine (a neutral white like Pinot Grigio or Chablis is ideal)
6 sheets of fine leaf gelatine (or whatever amount is recommended to set 500ml of liquid)
425ml strained ham stock 
A large handful of curly or flat leaf parsley
Freshly ground black or white pepper
A pinch of mace (optional)

You'll also need a medium sized (about 1.2 litres) bowl

Put the wine into a shallow dish, add the gelatine and leave for about 10 minutes until the gelatine softens.  Heat the ham stock, remove from the stove and stir in the gelatine until dissolved. Leave to cool for 30 minutes.

Remove any fat from the ham and cut into largeish chunks about 2cm square. Finely chop the parsley and mix with the ham. Season with pepper and mace (no salt - the ham should be salty enough.)

Pour half the cooled stock into the bowl, mix in half the ham and parsley mixture and refrigerate until it just begins to set.  Add the remaining ham and stock** and refrigerate for a further couple of hours.

* Of course you can make it from scratch. A ham hock should contain just about enough lean meat to make a small terrine.

** If the stock has jellied you can warm it again gently.

Irish-style boiled bacon

We had friends round to supper last night, two of whom were chefs which sounds a bit daunting. What I've learnt over the years though is that they're the easiest people to please. For a start they never get invited out as everyone is terrified of messing up and what they really like to eat is simple home-cooked food.

As it's St Patrick's Day today (a happy one to you all!) I thought I'd make boiled bacon. This in itself was a bit of an epic struggle - you can't find a bacon joint for love or money other than one of those odd cylindrical moulded ham joints which oddly cost about twice the price of a piece of pork. In the end I tracked one down at my local butchers which was bigger than I needed but I reckoned we could probably live off the leftovers for the rest of the week.

Having soaked it overnight I put it in a pan with an onion, carrot and bayleaf, brought it slowly to the boil then cooked it in the bottom oven of the Aga for about 6 hours. (I could easily have done this at a low temperature in a conventional oven or used a slow cooker which is great for boiled meats) I then used some of the stock to cook off some carrots, turnips and leeks which I laid over the other veg to semi-steam them so they didn't go soggy. Then I returned the water in which I'd cooked the veg to the main pan.

Finally I rested the meat and warmed up the veg in the broth then cut the meat up in chunks and laid it and the vegetables on a huge platter, scattered over some chopped flat-leaf parsley and ladled over some of the broth (serving the rest in a jug alongside). To keep the Irish theme going we also had colcannon (mashed potato with spring greens) but some plain boiled potatoes would have been just as good.

We had smoked salmon to start and Irish cheese*, oatcakes and fruit to follow and though I say it myself it was a feast.

* Well, not as Irish as I'd have liked. I managed to find some Cashel Blue but the local cheese shops didn't have any other Irish cheeses which was a bit perverse of them the day before St Patrick's Day. The others were White Nancy (a local goats' cheese) and a sheeps cheese called Berkswell.

Why skin broad beans?

Broad beans (fava beans in the US), in season right now, are one of my favourite vegetables. They're also one of the most wasteful since chefs collectively decided that we must not only pod them but skin them.

It's true that the greyish, wrinkly skin doesn't look particularly attractive. But it's tasty and not too tough unless you're dealing with the last beans of the season. True, too, that the tiny jewel-like emerald green beans inside are prettier in salads and dishes like risotto. But there are many dishes such as the rustic one below, from my book Meat and Two Veg, where they're absolutely fine.

I never used to skin broad beans and when I first heard of the idea I thought that no-one would want to faff about popping them out of their skins. But it seems we do - odd when so many people can't even be bothered to wash a lettuce these days.

So are you a bean-skinner or do you leave them on?

Boiled bacon with broad beans and parsley sauce
Serves 4-6
1.5kg piece smoked collar of bacon or gammon, soaked overnight in cold water*
1 small onion, peeled and quartered
2 carrots, peeled and cut into 3 or 4 pieces
1 stick of celery, washed, trimmed and cut into 3 pieces (optional)
a few peppercorns
For the sauce
1 small onion, peeled and halved
1 bayleaf
350ml whole or semi-skimmed milk
25g butter
25g plain flour
400g fresh or frozen broad beans (podded weight)
A small bunch or pack of parsley (about 20g), destalked and finely chopped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Drain the bacon, put in a large saucepan and cover with fresh, cold water. Bring slowly to the boil and skim off any froth. Tuck the vegetables round the sides, add the peppercorns bring back to the boil then turn down the heat and simmer very slowly so that bubbles just break on the surface for about 2 hours. About an hour before the bacon is due to be ready put an onion and bayleaf in a small pan and pour over the milk. Heat slowly until the milk is almost boiling then take off the heat, cover and set aside for half an hour. Cook the broad beans lightly (about 5 minutes) and drain. Pass the milk through a sieve into a jug. Heat the butter gently in a non-stick pan, stir in the flour and cook for a few seconds. Pour in the warm milk in one go whisking as you pour. Replace over a low heat, bring up to the boil, then turn the heat down and simmer for a few minutes until the sauce thickens, adding a couple of tablespoons of the ham cooking liquid to get a nice light texture. Tip in the drained broad beans and stir in the parsley. Check the seasoning adding salt and pepper to taste. Carve the ham in thick slices and serve with the broad beans and parsley sauce and some new potatoes.
* If you don’t remember to soak the bacon just cover it with cold water, bring to the boil and discard the water.

A very nice quiche

Of all the options for using up the remaining ham from my hock I chose a cheddar and ham quiche and a split pea and ham soup made with the scraps and the bone. The quiche should serve 6 although the two of us managed to demolish half of it yesterday, the soup 4. That makes 12 portions in total from the one £1.89 joint of meat. Result!

Here's the recipe. I'm torn about whether to advise making your own pastry. It has a better taste and texture and is cheaper than buying it ready made but not by a huge amount and it does take a fair bit of time. But the filling knocks spots off any shop-bought quiche.

Cheddar, ham and onion quiche
I suggest cheddar, ham and onion but you could vary this in an infinite number of ways depending on what ingredients you have to hand

Serves 4-6
1 tbsp olive oil
15g butter
1 medium onion (about 175g), peeled and roughly chopped
A handful of wild garlic, shredded (optional)
375g shop-bought or home-made shortcrust pastry
3 medium eggs, lightly beaten
225ml single cream or cream and milk, mixed
100-110g ham, ideally off the bone, cut into small pieces
125g mature cheddar, grated
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 200°C/400° F/Gas 5.Heat a frying pan over a moderate heat, add the oil and butter then, when it has melted fry the chopped onion for about 5 minutes until soft. Chuck in the wild garlic (which I used because I still had some), stir and set aside.

Unroll the pastry, if ready rolled, or roll it out in a circle big enough to fit a 25cm/10in diameter flan tin. Carefully lower the pastry into the tin, pressing it into the sides, trim any overhanging edges and lightly prick the base with the prongs of a fork. Line the pastry case with a piece of foil or greaseproof paper weighed down with some baking beans and bake the pastry shell for about 10 minutes. Remove the paper and beans and return the pastry case to the oven for another 4 minutes. Brush a little of the beaten egg over the part-cooked pastry base and return to the oven for another minute or two. (This stops it going soggy)

Reduce the heat to 190°C/375°F/Gas 5. Add the milk and cream to the remaining eggs and season with salt and pepper. Scatter half the grated cheese over the base of the tart then sprinkle over the onions and ham and top with the remaining cheese. Carefully pour the egg and cream mixture over the top making sure that it is distributed evenly. Put the flan tin on a baking sheet and bake for about 30 minutes until the top is puffed up and lightly browned. Leave for 10-15 minutes before serving or cool completely and serve cold.

Ham hock hunting

My friend and fellow foodie Andy rang up this morning to see if I wanted to go to Bemmie (the Bristol neighbourhood of Bedminster) to buy ham hocks. Long way to go for a small piece of meat but she'd been raving about them for a while.

And goodness, she was right. There they were stacked up, freshly cooked and covered with an appetising jelly. At just £1.89 each. The butcher (D. Butt) specialises in offal and cold cuts so I bought a couple of slices of tongue as well. Total bill £2.79.

We had cold ham and tongue for lunch with a salad made from yesterday's market leaves plus a bit more of the wild garlic and chervil with a salsa verde dressing (vinaigrette with added gherkins, capers and parsley). Some boiled potatoes would have made it perfect but, as I've mentioned, carbs are strictly rationed in the Beckett household at the moment.

I can't believe how much ham there is left. Enough to make two or three of the following:

Chunky ham and mustard (or pickle)sandwiches
Scrambled eggs and ham
Ham omelette or frittata
Cheese and ham quiche (still got that cheddar to use up)
Macaroni cheese and ham (ditto)
Spaghetti carbonara with ham rather than bacon
Jambalaya
Potted ham
Ham hash (if we'd had leftover potatoes)
Pea and ham soup (using the bone)
and probably more . . .

What's great about buying ham on the bone like this is that you get a fantastic sweet flavour and texture: big juicy chunks rather than the limp slithery slices you get in a packet.

I reckon I'll get at least another four helpings out of it plus soup which makes the cost per serving about 19p (38 cents). Plus whatever other ingredients I use but it's still a ridiculously cheap way of eating.

Roast chicken and chervil soup plans on hold now. Gave half the remaining chervil and some dried limes to Andy in exchange for the lift and some more wild garlic which she grows in her garden (I like this barter economy). Too many leftovers to justify chicken.