Hello!
Husband cooked us a beautiful 10 lb honey ham last night, and now I have a beautiful cooked ham bone to do something with.
I was thinking some sort of really thick rice-based stew, but I don’t know how to get the hammy goodness of the bone into the rice.
Please help?
Make a ham stock and use that liquid to cook your rice in.
I would suggest not putting the rice in the soup pot unless you’re planning to eat all of it at one sitting. Instead, make the rice separately and pour the soup over whatever you put in a bowl. Rice gets soggy and goopy if left in liquid (as does pasta). Also, it doesn’t store very well.
Also, I’d roast the bone and then simmer it for several hours with chunks of onion, carrots and some garlic to produce the stock. Maybe some parsley and some cloves. Add any leftover ham to the soup after straining off the broth, heat through, then serve.
The bone is already cooked - what do you mean by roasting it? I should put it in the oven again? How long, and what temp, and should I wrap it in something?
I don’t cook, so I don’t know about basic stuff, but my husband wants me to make him a stew as his Christmas present.
You don’t have to roast it, but it tends to bring out a more robust flavor. Basically, stick it in a 425 oven or so with some onions, carrots, etc. and let 'er rip for about 30 minutes, or until the bone is browned. Then dump it all into a pot of water. You only have the one bone, so I’d make a smallish pot of soup. Once the stock is made, discard all the solids and proceed from there. It’s unlikely you’re going to end up with a thick stew, however, unless you add some sort of slurry. I think it would be a mistake, personally.
Roasting gives the bone and the little yummy parts still on it extra flavor. Put it in a pan in the oven at 350 degrees, roast it for an hour or so. Don’t worry if the yummies get dried out. They’ll rehydrate.
After roasting, put the bone in a stock pot with the onion, celery, garlic, carrots, and if you REALLY must, green pepper. Simmer on low until the bone falls apart. Ham bones are usually a joint, held together by tendons and ligaments. When you stir the pot and see that you now have two separate bones in there, you’ve gotten all the numminess out of the ham bone. The bones themselves should be absolutely clean. Turn off the burner, let the pot cool. If you’ve got a covered patio or a garage, put a cover on the pot and set outside over night. Otherwise, place it in the refrigerator over night.
The next morning, skim off the fat, take out the bone (don’t give it to the dog, they aren’t supposed to have pork bones, either) and discard. Strain the broth, fish out the bits and pieces of meat and dice. You now have WONDERFUL hammy broth to use in cooking your rice. Add the bits of ham for extra flavor.
Unless you are cooking the rice for an army, package the leftover ham broth in one quart sized freezer Ziploc bags. Label with contents and date. Careful, those full bags are slippery little devils. Find a box that fits in your freezer that will hold the bags, maybe even a shoebox. Stack the bags in the box, put the box in the freezer. The next day, take out the box, and you can fit those bags in wherever you have a little bit of space in the freezer. Very convenient.
I’m gonna take our hambone and make split pea soup!
~VOW
Awesome.
So I end up with a pot of essentially ham broth with veggies soup, and then I can pour *that * over a bowl full of rice, correct?
If I wanted to add bits of the ham that was already cooked, should those be added to the broth-soup when I’m cooking it? Or just chunked up and tossed over the rice&broth when it’s already in the bowls?
You could use that broth for a nice pot of jambalaya, if you’re looking for more specific ideas. Or you could use the broth and cook the rice risotto style (where you fry up the rice in oil, and then slowly add rice ladleful by ladleful until it’s done.) You should use a short grain rice like arborio or carnaroli, but you can get a nice, risotto-like substance using regular short grain rice. It might not be something I serve to an Italian and call “risotto,” but it’s still good.
Or you could give up on the rice and use lentils or split peas and have yourself a really thick and hearty ham bone soup. This recipe is pretty close to what I do. The more meaty bits the better. Especially if there is still a little glaze left on. . . yum!
The ham is already cooked, so cooking it longer will add little to the soup and likely make the ham chewy. I’d dump it in at the end for 5-10 minutes to get it hot, then serve over the rice. Actually, I like the jambalaya idea above even more. Or a gumbo (lots of good recipes online) for a nice, thick stew. Ham and andouille sausage, with maybe some sauteed chicken and Cajun spices: yummm.
@ **VOW **- Thanks for the very specific directions, sorry I didn’t see them before!
@ **pulykamell **- oooh, jambalaya… Now there’s a nice idea. I think I may have to head that direction.
@ **Biggirl **- My husband isn’t too fond of beans. Well, actually, he doesn’t mind them, it’s just they aren’t fond of him, if you know what I mean. However, that’s a really tasty looking recipe. I might save some of the broth and make myself a little batch for lunches at work.
@ **ChefGuy **- Thank you for your specific answers - they’re really helpful.
So. I’m roasting this hambone for a bit, tossing it in a pot with yummy veggies to make nice broth, which I will then refrigerate and strain the next day. I’ll freeze some for use later (perhaps in a nice bean soup for myself), and use the main part for jambalaya for my husband’s “stew.”
Awesome. You guys are great!
We live in the South, and my husband insists on eating a couple of spoonfuls of blackeye peas every New Year’s day. He hates blackeyes, but he’s superstitious (eating blackeye peas on New Year’s day is supposed to bring luck and money). So I’m willing to make a pot of blackeye peas, and I generally put ham, or a ham bone, or bits of ham steak, or ham hocks, or bacon in the peas.
Peas porridge HOT
Peas porridge COLD
Peas porridge in the pot, NINE DAYS OLD!