Chinese-spiced ham hock hash

Ham hock hash has been a staple in Dunedin cafes for many years now.

We love to eat out to support local businesses, but sometimes it’s nice to know that these delicious dishes can be easily made at home as well.

Ham hock is a cheap cut of meat and has many different uses and cooking methods which makes it very versatile.

Due to the hock or knuckle being an overly used joint on the pig the meat will be quite tough if not cooked long enough, you want to get the ham to the ‘‘falling off the bone’’ stage.

Ham hocks are often used for soups and stocks; in this recipe we are going to start the oven on a high 220° to get the hock super dark and crispy before braising.

This is going to help with the flavour and it’ll help to get a nice crispy skin ... yum! And later if you want to, you can use the hock to make a stock for soup prep.

Serves 4

Cooking time 6hrs

Ham hock

1 ham hock

1 onion, roughly cut in half

1 carrot, roughly cut in half

2 stems of celery, roughly chopped

4 cloves of garlic

1 knob of ginger

1 orange

2 star anise

2 cinnamon quills

1 bay leaf

1tsp coriander seeds

½tsp chilli flakes

½tsp mixed spice

½c maple syrup

½c soy sauce or tamari

½c mirin

½c white wine

4c water (or enough to get the liquid to about halfway up the meat)

½c sesame oil and some salt for rubbing the meat before roasting.

For the hash

600g potatoes (cut and boiled)

½ a leek

1 onion

1 clove garlic

1 handful of spinach

1 tsp olive oil

Small knob of butter

¼tsp salt

¼tsp cracked pepper

Garnish

1 fried egg

Chopped herbs

Gochujang hollandaise (or aioli, chilli oil or siracha).

Method

Start by preheating your oven to 220°C fan forced bake. Start by prepping the ham hocks, the skin on the hock is super tough and quite hard to get through, but to help get a crispier skin you’ll want to try to make some scores across the top of the skin.

Cover in sesame oil and salt and rub in well. Salt will help with tenderizing the meat, and with the oil will also help to get the skin nice and crispy.

Once the meat is ready, prep a large roasting pan by making a bed of vegetables on the bottom out of the onion, carrot, celery, orange, ginger and garlic.

Place the hocks on top and the spices around the meat, add your liquids but don't cover the meat, just up to under halfway will be enough.

Place on the middle rack of the oven and bake for around 30-40 minutes or until you have the crispy skin to your liking.

Cover with foil and drop the oven temp to 160°C for a further 5.5hrs.

If you don’t have any leftover potatoes to use up, then you could use this time to pre-boil some up for later.

Once your meat is cooked, you’ll know because your house will smell amazing and when you take it out it will be falling off the bone.

Let it cool down for a moment first, then get it out to drain on a rack for a couple of minutes then place on a board for shredding.

While waiting for the ham to cool, strain out the leftover liquid into a large pot.

Cook this down into a thick sauce with some sesame seeds and chilli oil if you have them to create a great sticky sauce to cover the shredded meat in.

To shred the meat use forks in both hands and run the forks over the meat until it has all come off the bone and been shredded into smaller pieces.

Once the meat is shredded and mixed through the sauce you can start on the hash.

Start by finely slicing the leek, onion, and garlic. Get a large pan on the stove heating up with the olive oil.

Once it’s nice and hot add the vegetables in and sweat them until nicely browned.

Add in your cooked potatoes and continue to cook on high while constantly moving them in the pan to get them nicely browned all over for around 5 minutes.

Add a little butter to the pan just towards the end with a ham hock and spinach and cook out for another few minutes until it has all come together nicely.

If you serve this straight into bowls, then you can now use the pan to fry your eggs to go on top. Garnish with your egg and choice of chopped herbs and sauces.

 

Seasons - By Alison Lambert  - Available for purchase now!

The Otago Daily Times and Alison have collaborated to bring you her first cookbook – Seasons.  

This book is the ultimate year-round cookbook. Seasons is filled with versatile recipes designed to inspire creativity in the kitchen, offering plenty of ideas for delicious accompaniments and standout dishes that highlight the best of what each season has to offer.  

 

$49.99 each. Purchase here.

$44.99 for ODT subscribers. Get your discount code here.