Friday Five: The Ham-over

Omelette for breakfast

For Christmas, Him Outdoors gets a ham from work. It's a really nice gesture, and I like ham a lot, but it's a little big for two of us. I tend to slice it into portions and freeze them. We buy a load of mustard, cheese, tomatoes, cucumber and pickle, and have variations on the traditional ham sandwich for our lunches. We take ham salads to every meal to which we get invited. We also try to get creative with breakfasts and dinners, and slowly we get through the ham, by about July.

Salad for lunch

5 Meals with Left-Over Ham:

1. Ham, cheese, tomato and red pepper omelette
2. Snowpea and ham risotto
3. Ham, leek and egg pie
4. Mediterranean lemon, ham and feta pasta salad
5. German-style potato and ham salad

Pie for dinner

Friday Five: Festive Salads

Brussels sprouts salad with crispy bacon

In the lead-up to Christmas, I have been trying out some festive food to make for 'the big day'. In the heat of Australia (with temperatures of thirty degrees for the Christmas week), this means salads, or other light meals, and festive means red and green. So this is what I have been cooking:

5 Festive-looking dishes from our kitchen:

1. Brussels sprouts salad with crispy bacon
2. Sticky barbecued prawn salad (with banana prawns, green chilies, avocados, fresh basil and cherry tomatoes)
3. Couscous, chorizo and courgette salad
4. Roast rack of lamb with mint, bean and feta salad
5. Spinach and tomato bake

Spinach and tomato bake

Friday Five: Beetroot Brilliance

I read today that Australians eat more beetroot per capita than any other nation. I have a friend who describes it as the devil’s vegetable (I disagree- that is surely turnip) and another who uses it to make her chocolate cakes moist – no, I don’t know how. I have also heard tell that you can slice it finely and sautee it as a crisp. Personally, I would rather just buy crisps.

And I’ve never been a huge fan of the pickled variety. I do like pickled things – eggs; onions; gherkins; herrings; 40-something year olds in the pub on their birthday – but I think it’s a shame to do that to a vegetable with such inherent vibrant personality.

Aussies (and Kiwis) put it in their hamburgers to make them quintessentially antipodean apparently (and they also often add an egg, which is irrelevant to this post). This seems slightly odd as beetroot is originally a southern European vegetable and is now most commonly found in North America, Central America and Britain.

It has several health-giving properties and is a rich source of anti-oxidants, nutrients and vitamins. Obviously the colour is an issue – it will stain everything you wear or touch it with. Disposable gloves are a good idea, but opening the door wearing red-stained surgical gloves is not, unless you want to get rid of cold-callers of course. I find it also pays to remember you’ve eaten it either you will give yourself one hell of a health scare when you next go to the toilet.

5 Top Ways to Serve Beetroot:

1. Roast it with other winter vegetables with a touch of olive oil and rock salt
2. Turn it into borscht – I prefer it hot with crusty buttered rolls
3. Shredded in a salad, with carrot, fennel, walnuts and feta; colourful and tasty
4. Hummus – add it to the chick peas, olive oil, garlic, lemon, cumin and tahini for a spectacular dip or accompaniment
5. Add it horseradish and ginger for a perfect pink addition to baked salmon