Easter is coming, and thoughts turn to ham. Actually, I think about ham a lot. We love ham, and tend to cook it with an eye towards a few meals: roasted ham, then leftover roasted ham, ham bits as part of an egg scramble, then ham soup. We have two primary ham-chefs, here at the farm, and recently I asked them for their favourite recipes.
Chef #1, and the most likely to make ham: Christiana! She uses her family recipe, and it’s simple, reliable, and so very good. She will often substitute jam for the fruit juice.
Chef #2 is Jeremy, who enjoys cooking big cuts of meat, and bringing us all to slow-roasted flavour-town for dinner. Last time he made ham, he used this recipe for inspiration.
Once we’ve feasted on ham, it’s time for the leftover-artists to take their turn!
Chef #3 is Erin, who doesn’t tend to cook a whole ham, but loves using leftovers. Last time she used ham, she used a ham bone to make broth, and then added the broth and remaining ham to cooked black beans, with onion, garlic, crushed tomatoes, salsa verde, peppers, and a mix of cumin, coriander, oregano and bay. This makes a thick smokey bean dish, inspired by flavours far to the south of Canada, that is lovely on rice bowls or in burritos.
Chef#4 is Tony, who makes a killer split pea and ham soup. This one is a staple here, and can be made with a ham hock, leftover ham bone, or whatever bits and pieces of smoked meat is hanging around needing to be used.
Caveat: at Cast Iron Farm, we generally use recipes as inspiration, not flavour prison. These are some good starting places, so take the recipe that calls to you, and adjust as you like.
Share what works, because I’d love to hear! (Due to excessive spam, I’ve disabled comments, but you can always email us, or participate in the discussion on Facebook!)