Cooked ham salad with onions and celery, preserved

Ingredients for 1 servings:

• 1 liter of water
• 1 tbsp, leveled salt
• 2 tbsp, levelled sugar
• 200 g celeriac, peeled or celery sticks
• 1 large bay leaf
• 400 g onion(s), peeled and weighed
• 400 g cooked ham, sliced, without fat
• 1 bunch of parsley
• 150 ml white wine vinegar

Instructions

Working time approx. 30 minutes; Cooking/baking time approx. 15 minutes; Total time approx. 45 minutes

Low in calories and fat, quickly accessible – a light snack, appetizer, side dish, or salad ingredient. Makes approximately 4 jars of 450 g each.

The jars must always be rinsed thoroughly. Just before filling, fill them to the brim with boiling water, screw the lids shut, and let stand. Peel and wash the celery, then cut into fine strips or cubes as desired. Peel the onions, quarter them, and cut into approximately 5 mm wide strips. Halve the ham slices and also cut into 5 mm wide strips. Bring the water to a boil with salt, sugar, bay leaf, and celery, and simmer for 3 minutes. Add the onions, bring back to a boil, and simmer for another 3 minutes. Add the ham strips and bring to a boil briefly. Stir in the vinegar and parsley, season again if desired, and turn off the heat. The liquid should continue to boil slightly until you pour it into the jars. You need to work quickly now, because if the food cools down, its shelf life will be reduced. Pour the hot water from the prepared jars and place them close to the saucepan on a generous layer of kitchen paper (it will be quite messy). Using a narrow ladle, ladle the still-simmering salad into the jars, then add a little more with a spoon handle until the jars are full to the brim (remove the bay leaf as it appears). Wipe the rims and the tops of the jars clean with clean kitchen paper and screw on the lids immediately. After a quarter of an hour, when the jars have cooled slightly, rinse them under warm water, as some sticky liquid always spills. Then turn them upside down and let them cool; this makes the lid even tighter. The shelf life in the refrigerator is at least 4 weeks. Of course, you can also enjoy the ham salad immediately. Ham preserved this way is delicious as a snack, as a quick side dish, for example, with fried potatoes, or as an ingredient in pasta, potato, or rice salad, etc.