This week, my kitchen was a full-on flavour fest thanks to the incredible goodies from the weekend market. I set out to do those fresh ingredients justice and, oh boy, did they deliver!
Lately, I’ve been playing with the idea of cooking a couple of meals in one go—saving time, electricity, and somehow, even ingredients. But the real perk? Future me gets a night (or three) off from cooking and cleaning. Total win!
Two nights ago, my kitchen was absolute chaos—like, bomb-site level—but trust me, magic was happening. I had four recipes going at once: ham hock soup, a 'village-sized' batch of osso-bucco, brisket, and pulled chicken.
I’m sharing the ham hock recipe below, but if you want the scoop on the others, just reply, and I’ll happily send them your way!
This protein queen only had a 900g hock, next time i'd get a bigger one, or two.
Ingredients:
1 tbsp coconut oil, duck fat or tallow or other fat
2 onions, cut into thin wedges
3 litres (12 cups) chicken stock (beef works if you don't have chook)
1 large smoked ham hock (1kg-1.2kg)
2 each carrots and celery stalks, thinly sliced
1 turnip (150gm), peeled, cut into 1cm dice
3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 tsp ground turmeric
½ tsp ground cumin
300 gm pumpkin, such as butternut, peeled, cut into 2cm dice
2 zucchini (330gm), cut into 1cm dice
4 silverbeet leaves (about ½ bunch), stalks removed, coarsely torn
Juice of 1 lemon, or to taste
To serve: chilli flakes
2 onions, cut into thin wedges
3 litres (12 cups) chicken stock (beef works if you don't have chook)
1 large smoked ham hock (1kg-1.2kg)
2 each carrots and celery stalks, thinly sliced
1 turnip (150gm), peeled, cut into 1cm dice
3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 tsp ground turmeric
½ tsp ground cumin
300 gm pumpkin, such as butternut, peeled, cut into 2cm dice
2 zucchini (330gm), cut into 1cm dice
4 silverbeet leaves (about ½ bunch), stalks removed, coarsely torn
Juice of 1 lemon, or to taste
To serve: chilli flakes
I did add olive green organics penne into this batch too (optional)
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Method:
Heat oil or fat in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and stir occasionally until tender (3-5 minutes). Add stock or water, ham hock, carrot, celery, turnip, garlic and spices, and bring to the boil. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer, adding more water as necessary to keep ham hock just covered, until meat is very tender (about 2 hours). Add pumpkin (and penne if you wanted some here) and cook for 10 minutes, then add zucchini, and simmer uncovered until vegetables are tender and meat is falling from the bone (15-20 minutes).
Remove ham hock from soup and, when cool enough to handle, shred or coarsely chop meat (discard skin and fat), add to soup, bring to a simmer, then add silverbeet and simmer uncovered until just wilted (2-4 minutes).
Serve soup warm, seasoned to taste with lemon juice, a generous grind of cracked pepper and chilli flakes.
Remove ham hock from soup and, when cool enough to handle, shred or coarsely chop meat (discard skin and fat), add to soup, bring to a simmer, then add silverbeet and simmer uncovered until just wilted (2-4 minutes).
Serve soup warm, seasoned to taste with lemon juice, a generous grind of cracked pepper and chilli flakes.
And enjoy you absolute bunch of tens x Here if you wanted to reach out.
