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Ham hock, pearled spelt and roots potage
Serves 4-6 Starters and mains
Ingredients
- 1 x 1kg small ham hock (ask the butcher to trim it to the weight)
- 1 large onion, quartered
- 2 carrots, halved
- 3tbsp rapeseed oil, plus extra for serving
- 2 large banana shallots, diced to about 1cm
- 500g swede, peeled and diced to about 1cm
- 2 parsnips, peeled and diced to about 1cm
- ½ celeriac, peeled and diced to about 1cm
- 4 celery stems, sliced into 1cm pieces
- 100g pearled spelt
- 300ml fresh apple juice
- handful of celery leaves
Method
Put the ham hock in a large pan and cover with cold water by about 2cm. Add the onion and carrot (don’t add salt). Bring to the boil and turn down to a gentle simmer for about 2-2½ hours until the meat is cooked and falling off the bone. Leave ham to cool and chill overnight. Skim the fat from the cooking liquid and reheat in a large pan. When the ham is cool enough to handle, remove all the meat from the bone in chunky pieces and set aside (discard the rest). Drain the carrots and onions from the liquid through a sieve (reserve vegetables). Keep about one-third of the cooking liquid and pour it into a liquidiser with the vegetables and whizz to a purée.
Heat the oil in a large wok and add the shallot, swede, parsnip, celeriac and celery. Stir-fry until the vegetables just begin to show the odd speck of golden brown. Add the purée to the pan along with the spelt and apple juice and bring to the boil. Cook at a simmer for about 20 minutes until just tender. Add the reserved meat and a handful of chopped celery leaves, heat on low for 5 minutes, then serve with a sprinkle of black pepper and a little extra oil drizzled over the top.
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