The Lee Bros. Simple Fresh Southern_ Knockout Dishes With Down-Home Flavor - Matt Lee [47]
3 While the vegetables roast, make the mint dressing: In a small bowl, whisk the remaining 5 tablespoons olive oil with the vinegar, shallot, garlic, remaining ½ teaspoon salt, and the mint.
4 Transfer the roasted vegetables to a serving platter, spoon the dressing evenly over them, and serve.
ROASTED NEW POTATOES WITH COUNTRY HAM AND CHILES
serves 4 • TIME: 5 minutes preparation, 35 minutes cooking
We love crispy roasted potatoes, and this easy side dish hits all the southern comfort notes: salty, hammy, appetizingly spicy. Though perfectly wonderful with Gran’s Flank Steak, these potatoes also put us in a breakfast state of mind: Heat up any leftovers on a plate and drape poached or sunny-side-up eggs over them. Yum!
1½ pounds small new potatoes, spots trimmed, quartered
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
½ teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
6 to 8 ounces poblano chiles (about 2 large chiles)
4 ounces very thinly sliced uncooked country ham, prosciutto, or Serrano ham, cut into thin strips
1 Heat the oven to 425°F.
2 Scatter the potatoes in a 9-x-13-inch roasting pan, and drizzle the oil and the vinegar over them. Then sprinkle the salt and pepper over them, and toss with your hands until evenly coated. Roast for 10 minutes.
3 While the potatoes roast, stem and seed the poblanos. Cut them into strips 2 to 3 inches long and ¼ inch wide.
4 Remove the pan from the oven (leave the oven on). Sprinkle the poblanos among the potatoes, and toss together until the peppers are coated with the oil and seasonings. Return the pan to the oven and continue to roast until the potatoes and chiles are almost browned, about 25 minutes.
5 Transfer the potatoes and chiles to a serving platter. Sprinkle the ham over them, let it warm and melt slightly, and then serve.
country ham shopping notes ••• A country ham is the hind leg of a pig that’s been cured in salt and sugar for a few weeks, hung in a smokehouse for another few weeks, and then aged for months. The process may take a year or more, during which time the ham loses almost a quarter of its weight, resulting in a super-concentrated turbo-ham much like Tyrolean speck (a smoked version of prosciutto).
The great majority of country hams sold and consumed in the South are cooked for a celebratory occasion or a holiday meal: they’re first soaked in water, then boiled and baked. But these days, more and more ham fanciers are choosing to eat country ham uncooked and sliced paper-thin, in the manner of Spanish Serrano and Italian prosciutto. Southern country ham producers have even begun to market their hams as “Prosciutto-Style” or “American Prosciutto.” This is a wonderful development for consumers, because a paper-thin slice of country ham is insanely flavorful and terrific in all kinds of preparations: wrapped around a piece of melon or cucumber, or tossed into an omelet, a soup, or a pasta.
A whole country ham can weigh from 10 to 19 pounds, and although it is worth every penny, purchasing one can be a commitment. Fortunately, producers sell pieces of uncooked country ham in 2- or 3-pound blocks. One of our favorite producers, Newsom’s Country Hams in Princeton, Kentucky, sells a 3-pound pack for about $10 (shipping not included). When we get the pieces, we simply trim any skin with a kitchen knife, and then slice the flesh as thin as we possibly can. The slices won’t be broad and beautiful the way they are when you slice from a whole ham, but they sure work for all the dishes we make.
A couple things to remember about buying whole country ham: Don’t be afraid of exterior mold: A beneficial mold grows on country hams while they’re in the smokehouse. And although it is benign, you should wash it off before slicing