Crisp Ham Hocks with Plum Chutney

by Domini Kemp, featured in Dinner

Published by Gill & Macmillan

Print me

Introduction

This German dish of roasted pork knuckle, or ham hock, is especially popular in Bavaria. It's usually served with heaps of cabbage and potatoes or some sort of dumpling, which is nice and delicious, but this is a more 'crispy' approach, served on toasted sourdough with a pungent chutney to cut through the rich, fatty, salty meat. Otherwise, you can just use the meat to go with a lovely lentil salad instead.

As featured in

Dinner

Image of Domini Kemp's Crisp Ham Hock with Plum Chutney — Photo by Joanne Murphy

Ingredients

Serves: 4-6

For the Ham Hocks

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion (peeled and sliced)
1 clove garlic (peeled and chopped)
1 stick celery (chopped)
1 carrot (peeled and chopped)
3 - 4 sprigs fresh thyme
2 bay leaves
3 - 4 whole black peppercorns
2 ham hocks
250 millilitres cider vinegar
2 tablespoons honey

For the Quick Plum Chutney

125 millilitres cider vinegar
150 grams caster sugar
3 plums (stoned and chopped)
3 inches piece of fresh ginger (peeled and sliced)
1 onion (peeled and very finely diced)

Method

Crisp Ham Hocks with Plum Chutney is a guest recipe by Domini Kemp so we are not able to answer questions regarding this recipe

For the Ham Hocks

In a large saucepan that has a lid, heat up the olive oil and roughly sweat the onion, garlic, celery and carrot. Add the thyme and bay leaves. Add in a few peppercorns and then gently place the ham hocks in the saucepan — you don't need to do any prep to them at all. Then top up with enough water to cover the ham hocks, add the cider vinegar and bring up to simmer, occasionally skimming any scum that rises to the surface. Cook gently for at least 2 hours.
Once cooked, let the ham hocks settle and cool down in the water for about 30 minutes. Then gently fish them out and set aside until cool enough to handle. You can keep the stock as a delicious, salty base for a lovely soup, but be sure to strain it to get rid of the vegetable debris. You can reduce it down by half if fridge space is an issue.
Discard the really fatty bits of the ham hock, tear the meat into shards and then place it on a roasting tray and drizzle the honey over it. Grill it until really crisp. It is also delicious tossed through salads and can be used in many pasta dishes to give sublime flavour. It's also really nice with buttered toast, chutney and a crisp green salad.

For the Quick Plum Chutney

Put all the ingredients together in a saucepan with a lid on and gently cook together until simmering and bubbling. Simmer for about 10 minutes.
Taste and season, and chill down until ready to serve.