Frugal Fusion Food

On my last trip to Tesco I headed for the RTC  section, as usual, there was nothing much that I could use with the exception of some top notch joints of gammon.

I had a good look at them and choose the 2 with the least fat and the best shape (cutting neat slices is difficult with an odd shaped joint).
 1 went into the freezer for Christmas, Francesca loves roast spiced ham, and the other went straight into the pot. Well straight after the shopping was put away and a cuppa was enjoyed.

I just popped it into a big pot with some allspice berries, a fat cinnamon stick, some black peppercorns and a star anise that I broke into a few pieces. Brought to the boil and them simmered for 3/4 of the total cooking time. The SO then stripped the rind off and scored the fat before putting it into a pyrex dish that just held it snuggly. I lined the dish with foil and baking parchment to make for easy washing up, then drizzled a mixture of mustard powder and maple syrup over. Into the combi oven on convection at 180 c for the remainder of the cooking time, basting every 10 minutes or so.
Gosh this is long winded, not long now.

We had this cold with salad and a jacket potato on Friday and very nice it was too.

Rewind to the joint coming out of the pot.

The cooking liquor was put through a fine sieve and poured straight back into the hot pot, I threw in some (love that quantity) yellow split peas, puy lentils, pearl barley and a dollop of tomato puree. Meanwhile the SO had peeled and diced, quite chunky, a parsnip, half a swede, 2 carrots and an onion. I added a grind of black pepper and some water, enough to cover the veg. This was brought to simmer and cooked gently for around an hour. By this time the smell was enough to make me swoon, the veg were meltingly tender and the legumes were cooked but not mush. I cooled the lot down fast by standing the pot in a sink of cold water and ice.

Last night we had a bowl of this for dinner, it was fragrant with the "Asian" spices and still had the comfort factor of childhood food. Totally delicious and very cheap and the best bit is that there is enough for 2 more meals. Oh Yum.

Harking back to my post of yesterday I realise how fortunate I am that I had my Granny to teach me this way of using every bit. Even the rind will be used, dried out a bit and hung in one of the trees the birds will soon strip it to the string.

I am off now to read the comments from yesterday and then it willl be time to walk Rufus.

                        TTFN                                      Pam