Ham

There are three types of home cooking in my book The quickie where you might cook yourself a nice sirloin steak with a quick garnish of chips with a cheeky little Bearnaise sauce. Then there is the slow cooked stew pot where a bit of food prep is placed in a pot or a slow cooker and left to stew away while you go to work or laze about on the sofa where the smells arouse your devouring senses for a few hours.

And then there is the slow cooked dish where you have to every so often pass a father (or motherly) eye over the cooking process tending to its well fare while it cooks.

Today at 2.30pm I placed a joint of Asda's finest Gammon in a pan and covered it with Coca cola and baby sat its cooking by every so often for 2 hours gently pouring in more coca cola so that it took on a sweet and juicy succulence that would end up making it melt in my mouth.

I cannot recommend highly enough how buying a food temperature thermometer to probe your food to get the exact cooking temperature and time for optimum succulence to your meat will enhance your eating pleasure. Time after time people over cook their meat until its dry and a real chore to eat and just taking a reading every so often while it cooks will work wonders for your culinary enjoyment.

The Gammon was at 73 degree's C and so out it came. Now I wanted to glaze it so I mixed 3 TBSP of Honey, 2 TBSP light brown sugar and a TBSP of Dijon Mustard and liberally smeared it all over the joint.

Now place the Gammon in a hot oven and baste your Gammon every 5 minutes until it takes on a sticky and gooey appearance. To be honest you will know when the Gammon is ready because you will take it out of the oven after a few basting's and you will shout out loud and I quote "....Oh baby that's is fantastic..." ha ha !

Honest you will, trust me !

I was going to have my Gammon with Homemade chips and the Geordie Dish of Peas Pudding which is made with Yellow Split peas and water, although I add some butter at the end of the cooking process for some more richness.

I love Peas pudding with Gammon and when I worked at the Dunstanburgh last year we had Gammon with a Alnwick Rum glaze on the menu as a special and I made Peas pudding fritter balls as a garnish to go with the dish which were made by mixing a little mash into the pudding mix and then shaping them into small balls and letting them set in the fridge. Then when one came on order I would breadcrumb them and deep fry them. Superb.

I know some people who have tried Coca Cola cooked Gammon before and said they don't know the difference well I say....bollo....I mean rubbish ! The cola gives it a lovely flavour and I hope you try it very soon....enjoy 

No more Photo effects I promise !