Ham Hock Soup: rare breed, and organic.

Today i worked in London on my usual ‘farmer’s market‘. One of the stallholders, is a family run farm selling organic certified meat poultry and eggs. They have chickens and geese, sheep, cows, rare breed pigs and more. I sometimes buy a ‘hock of ham‘, usually smoked, which is a cheap cut of meat, but when well cooked is very tasty – like a good joint of gammon at a fraction of the cost. And as i have just had a bowl of soup topped with ham hock, and cooked with a stock made with the hock itself, i will post the recipe i use here: it is one of my favourite soup recipes. This soup is a classic, and just what i need on a chilly autumn (fall 🙂 ) evening.

Here is the stock pot, before adding water and boiling for two to three hours:

And later the soup, made with the stock water from the above ingredients, and a sprinkle off the cooked ham hock; ontop:

Here is the link to the recipe, i use, and below a cut n paste of the ingredients and method, just in case that page goes offline:

Ham hock soup

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/jan/30/easy-ham-hock-soup-recipes-keep-it-simple-stupid

 

Cooking time: 2-3 hours plus soaking of lentils
Prep time: 15 minutes

Serves 6
For the stock
1 onion
1 carrot
1 celery stick
4 leeks, green parts only, roughly chopped (keep the white parts for later)
1 bay leaf
1 tbsp black peppercorns

For the soup
100g split yellow peas, soaked overnight
1 ham hock
4 carrots
4 leeks, white parts only (see above)
1 small swede, peeled
1 tbsp olive oil
100g red lentils
2 tbsp chopped parsley
Salt and black pepper

1 Rinse the ham hock in cold running water. Place it in a pan that it fits into comfortably.

2 Now prepare the vegetables for the stock, throwing them into the same pan as you go. Chop the top and the root off the onion. Chop it in half and peel it. Then chop it roughly. Peel the carrot and chop it up roughly, discarding the ends. Wash the celery and chop it roughly – you can use the leaves in the stock as well as the stalks, but discard the root. Wash the leeks. Chop off the root and the green parts at the top. Put the outer leaves and the green parts into the pan. Keep the white parts for later.
3 Add the bay leaf and peppercorns, cover with cold water and place over a high heat until it comes up to the boil. Turn the heat down to a low simmer and cook gently for about 2-3 hours, or until the meat is pulling away from the ham bone. Keep topping up the pan with water so the ham hock is always covered. Strain off the stock and set aside.

4 Now prepare the vegetables for the soup. You can chop them roughly if you are in a hurry or if you plan to blend the soup, but with a dish as simple as this it can be satisfying to spend some time making them look pretty. If you want to do this, follow these instruction: Peel the carrots and chop off the top and tail. Cut them into four strips lengthways – this can be tricky; be careful not to cut yourself. Then cut these strips lengthways to make batons. Finally cut them across into little cubes. Slice the whites of the leeks into two halves lengthways, then slice each half into strips lengthwise and finally cut them across to make little dice. Peel the swede. Chop it horizontally into rounds. Then slice across these to make batons and finally across again to make little squares.

5 In a large heavy-based pan, heat up the olive oil and add the diced vegetables. Stir well, season and cook covered over a low heat for 5 minutes. Drain the split peas and add to the veg along with the lentils. Cook for a minute and stir well. Add about 1 litre of the reserved ham stock and bring up to a simmer. Cook gently for about 1 hour or until the vegetables and pulses are tender. Add extra stock or water if the soup is getting too thick.

6 When the soup is cooked you can add water to make it thinner if you prefer. At this stage you can keep it as a chunky veg soup or blend until smooth. We like to blend a cupful of the soup mix and return it to the unblended soup. Season the soup well – do this in stages, tasting between each addition of salt and pepper – and add the chopped parsley.

• The meat from the ham hock can be shredded and added to the soup, as it has been in the picture to the left. Alternatively, it can be reserved for another dish such as a ham hock salad or sandwich.

• This is delicious with a blob of cold yoghurt on top. This provides richness, a contrast of temperatures and an acidic twang.

Recipe by Jane Baxter.

 

Nutty sweet mushroom omlette:

While out in the field two days ago, i came across a beautiful mushroom, standing erect by the side of the field (the most impressive of many). It was a pale brown parasol mushroom, and a fine specimen: 7 inches tall, with a 5 inch cap. (a bit like this one : here ) I wish i had taken a picture of it.

I am making stock for soup this evening, and had some leftover leeks (green parts only, about one meduim leek’s worth), so i chopped up the leeks, the parasol mushroom cap (stalk discarded), and added them to a pan of hot olive oil. Five minutes after stir frying on a high heat, i turned the heat to medium and added three eggs. Less than ten minutes after adding the eggs, i divided the omelette/frittata (i never turned it) after seasoning with salt and pepper. It was divine! The mushroom was nutty sweet, and i still have a sweet taste in the back of my mouth, half an hour after i finished it.

One of the joys of living in the countryside, is there is an abundance of wild food just waiting to be harvested. I rarely do forage for wild food, as i work on a fruit an veg farm, and have access to plenty of good shops in the local area. But mushroom season is here and that was the tastiest mushroom i have eaten in a very very long time.