A colleague came back from Parma, Italy and brought home for me a whole chunk of… Parma ham, what else?  Oh my!  How the hell do I slice this beauty nice and thinly?  So it sat on my ref for forever.  But hooray to Santis… they agreed to slice this whole slab for me (for a fee of course but who cares for as long as I get to partake of it and not just drool whenever I open the ref) and so this has become a usual fare lately.

Team it up with cheese and bread, eaten either as is or as a sandwich… heaven.  Love it and could never tire of it.  Vacuum packed, it goes a long way too.

The very nice staff of Santis asked me if I wanted the ends.  “It’s good for soups and stews”, they suggested, so I asked them to throw that in too.  And this is how I used it.

Not (yet) on a soup or stew dish.  I always have veggies that needed to be eaten yesterday.

So some cubed ends of the ham got thrown into a medley of stir-fried veggies (carrots and string beans) for flavor and some guilty pleasure to an otherwise healthy dish.  Instead of rice, I felt like having it with quinoa.  It’s a highly nutritional seed that is prepared and eaten like whole grain such as rice or barley.  I like it because I like the firm and slightly chewy texture.  I usually cook it with milk and sweetened with honey or Agave syrup. But I came across a savory recipe that piqued my curiosity.

Topped with fried egg… super yum!

Boil with chicken or pork stock then top with the stir-fried veggies (with the ham) and you’ll be hooked.  How to cook quinoa:  you can either follow the instructions on the label or watch this:

Useful Info:

Where to find Quinoa in the Philippines?  You can find it in any Healthy Options store in the metro.