Five Spice Beetroot and Gammon Stew

I'm starting to really like beetroot. This is a lovely comforting winter stew with a slightly Chinese edge to it.

Five Spice Beetroot and Gammon Stew (from Recipes from a Pantry)
(Serves 2-3)

1 onion, roughly chopped
200g raw beetroot, roughly chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp veg oil
200g smoked gammon, cubed
1 tsp five spice powder
2 400g tins borlotti beans rinsed and drained
400ml chicken stock
1/4 tsp brown sugar
1 tbsp fish sauce
2 tbsp soy sauce

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Add the onion, garlic and beetroot into a blender and whizz into a puree. Heat the oil in an oven ready casserole dish and brown the gammon, before quickly mixing in the Chinese five spice. Remove the gammon and set aside.

Add the beetroot and onion puree and cook for 5 mins before returning gammon to the pot. Add everything else in, mix well and bring to the boil.

Cover the casserole, transfer to the preheated oven and cook for 1 hr.

Gammon and Eggs

As a child I hated gammon, the saltiness of it and the fact that it was always served with a tinned pineapple ring. Whilst I have never grown into the taste of pineapple I do now love gammon. This is such a simple way to serve it with an egg and some crispy new potatoes. I also served it with watercress and mangetout peas instead of the salad suggested in the original recipe.

Gammon and Eggs (from Jamie Oliver)
(Serves 2)

300g red-skinned baby potatoes
salt and pepper
olive oil
1 heaped tbsp English mustard powder
2 1cm thick slices gammon
few sprigs fresh rosemary
2 eggs

Preheat your oven to 220ºC.

Parboil the potatoes in a large pan of boiling salted water for 10 mins, then drain and tip into a rosting tin. Season with salt and pepper and drizzle with a little olive oil, then shake them a little so they are coated in the oil and seasoning. Bake in the oven for 15 to 20 mins until crispy.

Sprinkle the mustard powder and a pinch of salt and pepper over the gammon slices and rub into the meat. Heat a frying pan over a medium-high heat and add some oil. Put your gammon in the pan, and place a smaller lid directly on top of the meat. Push gently on the lid, and cook for a few mins, shaking the pan every now and then, until the gammon is caramelised and golden on the bottom. Turn the gammon over, and cook for a couple more mins, again with the lid on top of the meat so it stays flat. Add the rosemary sprigs and leave to cook for a couple more mins.

Meanwhile bring a pan of water to the boil and add a tbsp white wine vinegar. Crack each egg into a small cup, then one at a time, gently pour them into the water in one fluid movement. Cook for 3 to 4 mins for a soft to firm egg.

Drain your gammon on kitchen paper or simply let the fat drip off. Put a slice of gammon on each plate and top with a poached egg, drizzle over a little oil and sprinkle with pepper. Serve with the potatoes and a salad.

Ham and Pea Pasta Bake

This is the first time I've made a proper white sauce that was thick and unctuous. Before all my white sauce were very thin and never seemed to thicken properly, the key is using much more flour and butter than you think you need!

Ham and Pea Pasta Bake (from Simply Delicious)
(Serves 4-6)

150g butter, cubed
125g flour
750ml-1l milk
pinch of nutmeg
white pepper and salt to taste

300g macaroni
4-5 slices chopped left-over ham
200g frozen peas
100g cheddar cheese, grated

To make the sauce, melt the butter in a saucepan and whisk in the flour. Slowly pour in the milk whilst continuously whisking to get rid of any lumps. Lower the heat and allow the sauce to cook for 10 minutes. Add the nutmeg and season to taste.

While the sauce is cooking, cook the pasta in a large pot of boiling water until al dente adding the peas for the last 3-4 mins.

Pre-heat the oven to 200°C.

Combine the cooked pasta, gammon and peas with the white sauce then mix well. Transfer to a baking dish and top with the cheddar.

Place in the oven and allow to bake for 15-20 mins until the top is golden brown.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 5 mins then serve.

Gammon Steaks with Colcannon and Redcurrant Sauce

I have a jar or redcurrant jelly winking at me in the fridge that I bought for something ages and ages ago. So I've been hunting around for recipes to use it up and came up with this gammon recipe. The sweetness of the sauce really cuts through the salty gammon and I love colcannon so this was perfect for me!

Gammon Steaks with Colcannon and Redcurrant Sauce (from Delicious Magazine)
(Serves 4)

500g floury potatoes, such as Maris Piper
50g butter
1 small onion, finely chopped
1/2 small green cabbage, shredded
50ml milk
4 smoked gammon steaks, cut into thick strips
200ml vegetable stock
2 tbsp redcurrant jelly
      
Cut the potatoes into even-size chunks and put into a large saucepan over a high heat. Bring to the boil, and cook for 15 mins, until the potatoes are tender. Remove from the heat, drain well and return to the pan. Mash until smooth, cover and set aside.

Meanwhile, melt 20g of the butter in a medium pan over a medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring, for 5 mins. Add the cabbage and a splash of water, cover and cook for 6-8 mins, until softened. Drain, add to the potatoes with another 20g butter and the milk, season and mix together. Set aside, covered, while you cook the gammon.

Heat the remaining butter in a large frying pan over a medium heat. When hot, add the gammon and cook for about 2 mins each side, until cooked through and golden. Remove from the pan.

Make the redcurrant sauce. Add the stock to the frying pan, stirring to scrape up any gammon juices. Stir in the redcurrant jelly until melted, then bubble vigorously for 3-4 mins to concentrate the flavour – it will be a thin sauce. Add the juices from the set aside gammon, then season.

Divide the colcannon among 4 plates. Top with gammon and drizzle with the sauce to serve.

Gammon with Honey Mustard Sauce

Gammon was this meat I hated, too salty and it reminds me of school dinner where it was always served with tinned pineapple, which I hate! Being forced to eat the whole thing or you couldn't leave the table and having to swallow down those last cold fatty lumps. But in the last few months it's taken on something of a renaissance for me and if cooked right it's really lovely. This was a triumph, obviously gammon, honey and mustard is a no brainer all go together really well producing a lovely succulent and flavourful piece of meat.

I served it with mash, steamed veg and garlic mayonnaise.

Gammon with Honey Mustard Sauce (adapted from Delia Online)
(Serves 1)

1 gammon steak weighing
1 tbsp runny honey
3 level tsp Dijon mustard
10g butter
pepper

Preheat the grill.

To prevent the gammon from curling up while it's cooking, snip the fat at 1in intervals all round.

Combine the honey, mustard and a few twists of pepper in a bowl.

Melt the butter and pour it into the honey-mustard mixture, stirring to combine.

Brush one side of the gammon with the honey mustard mixture and lay it, sauce side up, on a grill pan and grill for 5 mins, turn the steak over and brush with the remaining sauce and grill for another 5 mins.

Sticky Glazed Gammon

I seem to be eating lots of foods I thought I didn't like in the last couple of weeks. Gammon being one of them. I bought Gammon steaks to use in the Daring Cooks Brazilian meal a couple of months ago and they were only sold in packs of two which left me with one over. My over riding memory of gammon is this incredibly salty meat that was served with a pineapple ring for school lunch, I hate pineapple which I guess didn't help.

This was different, the nice glaze made it sweeter and cut through the saltiness of the meat. As you can see mine didn't really work out like  a glaze, so I boiled it up a bit and used it as a sauce instead. Served over the bulgar it was a delicious and filling meal.

Sticky Glazed Gammon (from Good Food Magazine August 2002)
(Serves 2)

85g bulgar wheat
85g frozen peas                           
1 large leek, thinly sliced
1 orange, halved
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp runny honey
1 tsp Dijon mustard
2 lean gammon steaks
1 tbsp mint, chopped

Preheat the grill to high.  Bring a pan of water to the boil and cook the bulgar according to packet instructions. Toss in the peas and leek and bubble for the last 3-5 mins of cooking, cook until soft.

Meanwhile, while the bulgar cooks, make the glaze and cook the gammon. Squeeze the juice of one orange half into a pan, stir in the Worcestershire sauce, honey and mustard and simmer for 2 minutes until sticky. Season the steaks with pepper only, put them on the rack and grill for 5-6 minutes each side, brushing frequently with the glaze.

When the bulgar is done, drain, season well with salt and pepper and fork in the mint. Serve with a gammon steak on top.