Slowcooker ham shank and soup.

Hi everyone I grabbed a few ham shanks when I was at the butchers on Saturday, I can't get any local sadly so I have 2 more in the freezer. For the family that loves gammon this is a bargain and it's not as salty as gammon so doesn't take as long to cook if you decide to roast it, but It's lovely and tender if slowcookers....;ets face it i prefer everything slow cookered.

Ham shank-£1.35
Stock cube- 2p
carrots 10p
onions 10p
pepper 5p
Total cost £1.62

Add 2pints on water to your slowcooker, add diced carrots and onions and sprinkle in the stock cube, add the ham and grind some pepper on top (or sprinkle I prefer fresh ground and the wee grinders are only 89p) pop the lids on. I cooked on high for 1hr then low for 4hours, 3hrs at high would do or all day at low.

Normally i would say leave meat to rest before touching it, but it's best to do this when it's nearly falling apart, so get a fork and a knife, cut all the fat off (I say cut it pretty much falls off when you touch it and is now cooling for the dogs) then remove the meat, you can just pull this off with a fork.

This is a pasta bowl, it has just short of 265g of ham in it making it 50p per 100g which is a similar price of  value ham, this won't last as long as thinly sliced processed ham however it will be much nicer and healthier, And you get the added bonus of this.....

Soup :)

(yes i could have got more meat but this will flavor the soup nicely)

So the bones back in and the slowcookers still on and will remain on til I go to bed, when i will switch it off and in the morning skim the solid fat off. we will be around 6 bowls of soup from this, I may even add more water. This soup only cost 3 carrots, and onion and a stock cube :)

If you don't want soup and you budget can stretch to it i would cook this in cider then make a white sauce with the stock. Or you can just make normal gravy.

So quick recap

for £1.62 (plud half a bag of shredded cabbage at 50p so £2.12) I will get

A generous dinner for 2 served with half a bag of shredded  cabbage

6 portions of soup

Scraps and a bone for the dogs