The Perfect Ham And Eggs.

 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.

The Times Top Ten List

It's that time of the year when lists come out and the New York Times Food section is no different.  Today's issue is no different. The best recipes, drinks and restaurants are listed along with the hottest food terms of the year. It's an interesting look at how treats and toddies influenced the year that was.

What are the top recipes of the year? Ones that I would certainly like to try, There is roasted chicken provencal, a melange of thighs and wings roasted with shallots, lemons and garlic in a vermouth bath infused with herbes de Provence,Chicken is also top again, this time with an Mediterranean flavor.,oven roasted chicken sharwanaIt 's an easy fix of piling the sliced meat onto a platter and decorate with salad and topping. It's a fun light New Year's dish after heavy holiday feasting..It's tahini gracing chopped cucumbers and tomatoes along with parsley, olives and feta. Fried eggplant also adds flavor along with hummus swirled with harissa. Pile it on pita for a sandwich/salad mash up. Summer pasta with zucchini,ricotta and pasta was also popular.It's just a simple dish that you could even make now using frozen squash.There's also another  refreshingly simple dish - salmon with anchovy garlic butter. Capers are also added for a zesty saltiness but it's really the anchovy butter that makes it sing.Three cup chicken , a famed Taiwanese braise of thighs and wings in a dark and pungent sauce.Some of the other recipes were a quick fresh tomato sauce and the only dessert to make it was summer berry buckle.

What drinks made the list?Auslese.It a German riesling made from very ripe grapes and oomphed up with Botrytis cinerea. Sherry ,an old fashioned classic  has also cracked the list.As per the Pour column writer, Eric Asimiv, it has an almost oceanic taste thanks to the note of saline and iodine. He also praises the moderately priced wines such as the 2014 Mojo cabernet franc from Shinn Estate, a famed Long Island producer. The Southern Rhone gives the tasty blend of grenache, syrah and mourvedre. Another favorite was the 2013 trocken riesling fermented from grapes grown on limestone..The stone was reflected in the notes,stony, chalky and floral. Try these at the city's top restaurants.There's Gabriel Kreuther, named for the chef., is an homage to all dishes Alsacian, with its'rustic tarte flambees and liverwurst. Superiority Burger, the make is a  kind of a misnomer, is another yummy fave catering to vegans and vegetarians. Fans rave about the tofu Philly cheesesteak along with a sugary white sweet potato topped with chopped pickles, serranos and tarragon. Of course Momofuko Ko is right up there; New Yorkers love their boxed sushi and uni or sea urchin with chicken. Mexican food is also number one with Manhattanites  as seen in Cosme.with real Mexican tortillas along with celebrations of traditional dishes.

These are the lists to guide you to good eating and dining along with good drinking. It's a nice culinary salute to 2015. It's was an interesting year, flavorful and tasty in so many ways.