The main course to a Easter meal should be the perfect ham. it should be a bright to smoky pink on the inside side and have a deliciously crusty and flavorful glazed exterior. What should accompany it? Eggs of course but with a Chinese twist.
Regular contributor , food writer and recipe developer Genevieve Ko wrote about these usually breakfast staples in today's New York Times Food section. She gives a recipe for honey ham, taken from her own experience with cooking city hams or as we know them just hams. These are injected with water which can dry out in the oven. The best way to cook and serve them is to eat them without cooking and at room temperature.according to Brian Heffern, operations manager at the Honey Baked Map Company. This may freak out more than a few home chefs, but keep in mind the meat is already cured, so there's no worry. You could do what ms KO recommends. Cook it on the stove first for thirty to forty minutes and then transfer it to a 450 degree Farenheit oven for the last ten or fifteen minutes.The inspiration cam from her working with the great Alsacian chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten and the German chef Gabriel Kreuther. She helped with editing their respective cookbooks. Her ham has the German influence thanks to first a bath of Reisling wine mixed with juniper berries,peppercorns and honey. An onion is added which will serve as a rack for the ham to sit upon. When it's ready for the oven, it;s rubbed with a mix of brown sugar, Dijon mustard and more honey.
The second recipe comes from Ms. Ko's childhood. It's the tea eggs that all her "aunties" brought to her childhood church every Easter Sunday. This is a snack but it's also a great way of having those hard boiled eggs. They're soaked in a brew of black, tea, soy sauce and ginger. There is also the addition of star anise and Szechuan peppercorns. Use either oolong or jasmine tea loose or in tea bags.Plain eggs are cracked in the boiling process and when peeled, reveal intricate marbled patterns. If you're using your dyed eggs, then peel off the colored shell.Fully peeled eggs will have a richer, more intense flavor while being dyed a deep brown Keep in mind that raw eggs should be room temperature before boiling. Cold shells will instantly crack once they hit the hot water and that can create a mess. Tap them lightly with the back of a spoon to create hairline fractures. The tea will seep in and give them that pretty marbled effect. Cook never before cooked ones for six minutes for a jammy yolks seven minutes for just set ones and eight to ten minutes for hard crumbly ones. After they're cooked, drain the hot water, add cold water from the tap until they're completely cool. The already boiled ones can just be marinated in the heated sauce and then put into containers. These go into the fridge where they can be stored for up to a week.
Ham and eggs are always a great combination. Yet imagine the ham as a crispy, tender Easter one and the eggs as Chinese tea eggs. It's a nice way of celebrating Easter.
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