665. Gjetost

This was another of the picnic-style lunches that I like so much. I’d visited Wally’s delicatessen in town so I picked out a bunch of list items to make up a pretty fancy meal. The first thing was gjetost, which is a Norwegian brown cheese. It’s a caramelised cheese made from boiled whey, and it ends up having a fudgey texture and a sweet taste. It was just about the weirdest thing I’ve ever eaten in my whole life. Neither the texture nor the taste was anything like any other cheese I’ve ever had. It wasn’t bad per se, it was just so confusing to my mouth that I don’t think my brain really knew what to do with it. It retains a vague hint of cheesiness, but that is overshadowed by the sweetness, so you’re left kind of unsure as to whether you’re actually eating a cheese or if it’s really some odd type of candy. I ended up offering tastes to a bunch of my friends and family and they all had similar experiences.

666. Ajvar

Ajvar is a sauce made from red peppers. I used it here as a dip for veggies, but I think it would also be really nice for a lot of other uses. I’m going to try adding it to grilled cheese sandwiches, and I think it would be great as a ready-made pasta sauce.

667. Prosciutto di San Daniele and 668. Finochionna Salami

I also got a couple of meats from the charcuterie counter. Prosciutto di San Daniele is an Italian ham, which I found was really just very similar to any other kind of prosciutto or Parma ham I have tried in the past. The finochionna salami is a salami made with fennel seed and, as someone who isn’t a huge salami fan, I found it delicious. It was really meaty with a hint of spiciness and sweetness.

668 down, 1128 to go

623. Black Forest Ham

Black forest ham was really not how I expected it to be at all. Having had a few other German hams I was expecting it to be more of a country-style ham; thick cut with a really meaty texture and a smoky flavour. However it’s actually very similar to a prosciutto and I found myself using it pretty much interchangeably with that. I used some to make one of my favourite picnic-style lunches, and had it with hummus, olives, pitta and veggies.

623 down, 1173 to go

611. Honey-Glazed Ham

I rarely cook a ham, when I’m making a roast I normally plump for chicken, or occasionally pork, but I thought that ham would make a nice change. Pie’s mum makes this amazing honey and mustard glazed ham which gets this thick, sticky, caramelized coating on the outside, and I wanted to try and make something similar. Mine was not quite as good, I think my glaze was a little runnier so it tended to run off and gave a hint of honey and mustard all over the meat rather than a thick layer on the top, but it still tasted lovely. The sweetness of the honey with the saltiness of the ham is always going to be a winning combination in my book.

611 down, 1185 to go

490. Jamon Iberico

This is more from the work meal I went to. As well as the giant set menu that we were having, our CEO also insisted that we get enough jamon iberico to feed about 50 people (there were 11 of us). We had 5 plates like this… It was fantastic though. It’s a specific kind of ham from Spain which is made from these pigs which are fed entirely on acorns. Clearly acorns make for some tasty tasty meat. It came at the same time as this toasted bread and just the most amazing aioli I have ever had. Also, just realised my place tag is in the picture.

490 down, 1306 to go

423. Westphalian Ham

This will be the first of quite a few posts from my trip to Quebec earlier this year. One afternoon we visited the ice hotel, which was insanely cool, and on the way home we stopped at this little Italian restaurant for dinner. I had this pizza for my main, which I loved because, well it was square (I am easily entertained). The base was so super crispy, and it had a really savoury brown sauce instead of tomato, really good. The toppings were spring onions, mushrooms and westphalian ham, which is a dry-cured Acorn-fed pig ham, and was really salty and hammy and delicious. I love ham. All kinds. Pizza is never as good without ham.

423 down, 1373 to go

413. Croque Monsieur

Croque monsieur is the classic French cheese and ham toastie. I made these as I had some leftover cheese sauce. I just put ham and cheese inside the sandwich, made it like a regular toastie, then spread a thick layer of cheese sauce on the top and put it under the grill until it browned on the top. Very tasty.

413 down, 1383 to go

I tend to have a lot of ham and cream cheese sandwiches in one form or another so I thought that I would jazz it up a little by using some rosemary 298. Focaccia instead of regular bread. I also spread a little 299. Tapenade on to add a bit of extra flavour. It worked out really well. The only downside was that it kind of fell apart owing to the crumbly nature of the focaccia, but the taste was great. I chose a tapenade made with kalamata olives with a little sundried tomato for flavour and it was really good. I am mad about olives and always keep a big jar in the fridge so having them in a blended form as well can only be a good thing!

299 down, 1497 to go

151. Bagel

Bagels are one of my ultimate favourite snacks, and my favourite filling is definitely ham and cream cheese like I have here. It always makes me feel a little bad eating a bread of Jewish origin with just about the most un-kosher stuff inside of it, but it’s really just so damn delicious. If I have a choice I tend to go for either an onion or poppy seed bagel.

151 down, 1645 to go