1 Buy smoked bacon hocks from your butcher, the kind you would use for a pea-and-ham soup.
2 Allow 1 per 2 guests. Left-overs and the hock bones can be converted to a soup base the next day.
3 In a large saucepan, cover the hocks with water and simmer. Add a bay leaf, some peppercorns, chopped carrot, celery and onion.
4 Simmer till the meat starts falling away, topping up the water if it reduces. Remove the hocks from the liquid and keep warm.
5 Keep the poaching water to add to the bones to make a soup base later.
