Ham Perloo (Purlow)

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Easter has come and gone. And with that comes the true joy of the season - ridiculously cheap hams. I don't even like ham as a meal, but I somehow like ham if it's *in* something. This dish definitely scratches that itch, so every year we run out and grab a ham, to make this and some split pea soup.

This dish that seems to be common in the south, and has about ten names - pilau, perloo, pirloo, purlow, pilaf, plov - so I'm not going to bother guessing at the right spelling of this. The other fun thing is that recipes online range from incredibly bland (cook some rice in what's basically ham water) to incredibly complicated (something resembling jambalaya). The closest I found to something reasonable was one of Emeril Lagasse's recipes, but it needed a bit of tweaking to squeeze out a bit more flavor and cook things in the right order. The recipe below is therefore modified a bit from his website with a few extra ingredients and steps.

This ham purlow dish is far from fancy, but it is definitely memorable. I recommend it if you have leftover ham or want a more mild version of jambalaya.

Ham Purlow (Pilau)

• 1 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter

• 1 tbsp canola oil

• 1-2 cups pre-cooked ham, diced

• 1 1/2 cups finely chopped yellow onions

• 1/2 cup finely chopped celery

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

• 2-3 bay leaves

• 2 cups long-grain white rice

• 1/2 cup finely chopped green onions (green and white parts separate)

• 1 cup seeded and chopped tomatoes, or 1 cup passata

• 2 teaspoons finely chopped garlic

• 1/2 cup frozen peas

• 3 1/2 cups chicken stock

• 1/2 cup white wine or dry vermouth

Melt the butter with the oil in a large dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the onions, celery, white parts of green onions, salt, pepper, and bay leaves and cook, stirring often, until the vegetables soften, about 4 minutes. Add the ham and cook for 2 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add the rice and stir to coat. Add the tomatoes, wine, and chicken stock. Nobody's forcing you to use wine, but it does help bring out flavor compounds in the tomatoes. If you don't use it, substitute with more water or stock. Bring to a simmer over high heat, monitoring to prevent rice sticking.

Cover, reduce heat to low, and cook for 15-20 minutes, until rice has absorbed liquid. If dish is too dry at any point, add more stock or water. If it’s too loose towards the end, remove lid during cooking. Stir every 3-5 minutes to prevent scorching the rice. The timing isn't exact - you'll have to taste it and make sure you have something that's a risotto-like consistency, slightly softer than al dente pasta.

In last 2 minutes, add frozen peas and stir to incorporate. To serve, remove bay leaves, fluff with a fork, then mound into bowls and garnish with sliced green onion tops, and liberally pass the hot sauce.