Glazed baked ham and mashed potatoes with a good parsley sauce has always been a favourite trio of mine. This recipe uses those same ingredients in a rather different way, to make a lovely, hearty salad. If you don’t want to cook your own ham hock, buy a ready-cooked one from your butcher, or use any good ham – even the leftovers from a baked ham. Just make sure it’s in nice, thick chunks.
Serves 4–6
1 large bunch of flat-leaf parsley (about 50g)
1 ham hock (1.2–1.5kg)
1 onion, halved
1 carrot, roughly chopped
1 celery stalk, roughly chopped
500g new or waxy salad potatoes
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the dressing
2 teaspoons cider vinegar
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 heaped teaspoon English mustard
½ teaspoon sugar
Pick the leaves from the parsley stalks and set aside, reserving the stalks.
Place the ham hock in a large saucepan with the onion, carrot, celery and parsley stalks. Pour on enough water to cover and bring to a simmer. Cover and cook at a very gentle simmer for 3 hours or until the meat is tender and comes away easily from the bone. Skim off any scum that rises to the surface and top the pan up with boiling water if you need to. Remove the ham from the pan and allow to cool. Scoop out and discard the onion, carrot, celery and parsley stalks. Bring the ham stock back to a simmer.
Scrub or scrape the potatoes and cut them into equal-sized pieces (about the size of a golf ball). Add them to the simmering ham stock and cook for 10 minutes or so, until they are tender but not breaking up. (If you’re not cooking a ham hock yourself, just boil the potatoes in salted water.) Carefully scoop out the potatoes with a slotted spoon and set aside to cool. Strain the ham stock and save for another recipe (it makes a delicious soup with some finely chopped veg and beans or lentils).
Remove the skin from the ham hock. Pull the meat from the bone and trim away any sinew. Cut the meat into bite-sized pieces.
Put all the ingredients for the dressing in a jam jar with some salt and pepper, screw the lid on and shake to emulsify. Put the whole parsley leaves in a bowl with the chunks of ham and potato. Trickle over the dressing and toss lightly. Arrange on a platter or on individual plates and sprinkle with a little salt and pepper.
PLUS ONE A handful of Puy lentils, cooked as for the recipe here, make a lovely addition to this substantial salad. Just throw in around 40–50g cooked lentils with the other ingredients.