Huevos Rancheros meets Ham, Egg and Chips

I really fancied huevos rancheros today, but as I'd already used my Hex B for my bacon butty at breakfast, I decided to substitute a thick slice of ham for the tortilla.

The advantage of serving it with a cooked salsa rather than raw, is that I could add plenty of onion to really up that superfree.

Husband requested chips, so I made him some black pepper jacket wedges. They're almost chips, and I can't be too compliant now can I?

So, this is what I did:

Serves 2

Syn free on Extra Easy

2 thick slices of ham, all visible fat removed

4 potatoes, skin left on, cut into wedges

salt and coarsely ground pepper

8 tomatoes, de-seeded and finely chopped

1 red onion, peeled and finely chopped

2 yellow onion, peeled and finely chopped

To flavour the salsa, I used the leftover spicy sauce from last night's tiger prawns, which consisted of:

a small knob of ginger, minced

a couple of cloves of garlic, minced

1-2 tbsp tomato purée

1-2 tsp paprika

Par boil the potatoes, shake well in a sieve or colander to rough them up a bit, place on a baking sheet, sprinkle with salt and cracked black pepper. Cook in the oven on a high temperature until nicely brown.

Meanwhile, make the salsa. Sauté the chopped onion, garlic and ginger in Fry Light until soft, then add the tomatoes. Continue cooking for a minute or two, then add the tomato purée and paprika. You may need to add some water if the mixture is too stiff.

Serve with the ham and a fried egg.

Tortilla de Patatas y Jamon

Continuing with this week's international theme, today's lunch is Spanish. The classis tortilla is literally just potatoes, onion and egg, but I had some ham leftover that I wanted to use up. 

 

Serves 2

Syn Free on Extra Easy

3 medium-sized potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced

1 large onion, sliced

2 eggs

100g cooked ham, cubed

Sauté the onion and potato in Fry Light for around ten minutes or so, stirring frequently to prevent sticking. Add a small amount of water (around 5mm in the bottom of the frying pan) and simmer until the potatoes are cooked through. You may have to do that more than once, depending on the type and thickness of the potatoes – I ended up adding three lots of water for my potatoes to be cooked properly. Remove from the heat.

In a large bowl, beat together the eggs with a little salt and pepper and add the ham, potatoes and onions. Heat a frying pan with Fry Light and pour in the potato mixture. Cook very gently for 5-8 minutes until the mixture is almost set. You can then either try and invert it and cook the other side using a plate, or – if like me, you have never mastered that particular procedure - you can stick it under the grill for a few minutes to finish off. Serve with grilled tomatoes and a salad of your choice. 

 

Mushroom Melt

I used potrobello mushrooms for this recipe, but any flat cap mushrooms will do. I also used my home dried tomatoes, but it would be equally good with fresh tomatoes.

Serves 2

Syn Free on Extra Easy*

* Providing you use the cheese as your Healthy Extra A

4 portobello mushrooms

1-2 tomatoes (see note above), de-seeded and chopped

100g cooked ham, cubed

1 tube Primula Light Cheese

a few stems of fresh thyme, leaves removed

Remove the stalks from the mushrooms and chop. Spray the caps with Fry Light and bake in the oven at 150°C for 5-10 minutes. Meanwhile, sauté the mushrooms stalks and tomatoes for a few minutes, then add the ham, cheese and thyme leaves and stir until the cheese has melted and everything is heated through. Place the mushroom caps on two plates and fill each one with the ham and cheese mixture. 

 

Pea and Feta Salad

I made this salad to take on our picnic today, and Husband really enjoyed it. I served it with really thick cut Brunswick ham. I found the feta cheese went very well with the ham. I added in the mixed salad leaves from the original recipe, as the dish was lacking in superfree food. 

 

Serves 2

Syn Free on Extra Easy*

* Providing you use the cheese as your Healthy Extra A

Serves 4

300g frozen peas

4 slices bacon, all visible fat removed, grilled and chopped

100g feta cheese, cubed

1 small red onion, finely sliced

80g mixed salad leaves (watercress, spinach and rocket)

Cook the peas in salted water for a few minutes, then drain and rinse under running cold water. Mix all the ingredients together and serve with a dressing of your choice.

Ham and Parsley Terrine

This is a great dish to serve as part of a cold buffet, or to take to feed a crowd on a picnic.

Serves 6-8

Syn Free on Extra Easy

2 ham hocks, 1kg each, boiled and shredded with stock reserved

3½ leaves gelatine, soaked in cold water

125g gherkins, chopped

75g capers, chopped

75 shallots, chopped

1 large bunch flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped

Measure 600ml strained stock, reheat and dissolve the gelatine in this. Mix the ham, gherkins, capers and shallots together. Line the inside of a ½ litre terrine dish with cling film. Cover the bottom with a generous layer of chopped parley, then alternate the layers of ham and parsley until it has all been used up. Gently pour on the stock with the gelatine until the dish is full – making sure you leave enough room for the aspic – if the meat is too tightly packed meat the terrine falls apart when cut the next day. Leave overnight in the fridge to set.

The next day, invert the terrine, remove the cling film, cut and serve with a salad. 

 

Ham, Egg and Mustard Veggies

Inspired by the piccalilli my mother in law always used to serve with ham, I created a mustard sauce to go with the vegetables for this dish. 

 

Serves 3

2 Syns on Extra Easy*

* Providing you use the milk as your healthy Extra A

3 slices lean cooked ham

4-5 potatoes

3 eggs

½ cauliflower

1 leek

4-5 shallots

1 pkt Coleman's White sauce

300ml skimmed milk

1-2 tbsp mustard powder

1 tsp bouillon powder

pinch of sweetener

½ tsp turmeric

Peel and slice the leeks. Peel the shallots and quarter. Break the cauliflower into small florets. Sauté the leeks in Fry Light until soft. Boil the shallots and cauliflower until done to your liking. I did mine separately as I wanted the shallots cooked for longer than the cauliflower, which I like to still have a bite to it.

Cut the potatoes in wedges and place on a baking sheet. Spray with Fry Light and bake at 230°C for 30-40 minutes until cooked through and nicely browned.

Make the white sauce according to the instructions on the packet. Add mustard, bouillon powder and sweetener to taste, and turmeric for some colour. Add the vegetables and heat through.

Fry the egg in Fry Light for a few minutes.

Place the ham on three plates, top with the fried egg and serve with the wedges and mustard vegetables.