Cooking is an essential Life Skill in my opinion. If you know the basics, you can save a lot of money, better control what you eat AND you ALWAYS have options for your meals if you know how to use flavours and incorporate different ingredients so they pair well.
To get the most out the leftovers from a Holiday Meal, sometimes you need to do a little planning. Ham is currently on my list and I currently have the equivalent of 10 Quarts of Ham stock in the works. That is A LOT of Stock. It's also an incredible way to add variety to your meals and make enough extra to store in your Freezer for a later date. I don't wish to eat Ham based meals every day this week, it's better to plan for meals to be used at a later date when I don't feel like cooking.
I am letting the Ham Stock cool at the moment. I have separated out the Bones, Meat, Fat and the additional Vegetables I have added for flavour. The next step, planning what it is going to used for.
I have decided to make Baked Beans and Pork, a classic dish, full of Fibre and Iron, and with the flavours of the stock, it will be a beautiful way to incorporate Beans into a Healthy Meal. Remember, when you cook like this, you control the ingredients, the fat levels and the salt levels. You aren't eating processed food.
Once this stock has cooled, I will be soaking Navy Beans in a portion of it, overnight, and will bake them tomorrow with some of the Ham I have collected from the bone. I have already frozen several portions for items such as Sandwiches or Potato and Ham Salad in the future.
Baked Beans can also be used in many different ways. A side dish to an English Breakfast, add them into a Homemade Chilli, Make Rice and have Beans with Vegetables and Rice. Many different cultures use Beans and they are an excellent source of protein and minerals. Made correctly, they are just fabulous to eat.
The rest of the Ham and Stock, I could make a chowder with, but I'm short on ingredients. I will need to be a little clever this go around. Ham stock has a strong flavour, and as North Americans, we are used to eating it most traditionally with Potatoes, Leeks and other Harvest Type ingredients, we have become accustomed to certain flavours. That's a full story unto itself.
There are many things Ham pairs well with, including Pineapple and Tropical Fruits. Depending on the adventurous nature of your tastebuds, there is an incredible selection of ingredients you can add to a Ham stock to create a gourmet meal. Boiling Rice in the stock, adding Pineapple and some slivers of Ham and other Tropical ingredients can give you a Polynesian twist to a dish.
For now It's all about the beans. I'm spilling them into a bowl shortly.
I will continue this series of posts and the recipes I am creating this week. 10 Quarts of Ham stock... I wonder just how cleverly I can create new dishes.Final Recipes will come later this week. I have a lot on the go.
Have a wonderful evening!
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